Sonic Leashed
by Imaginary Color
Summary: There is such a thing as too much light. Sonic the Hedgehog is transformed by an ancient force, a force with the world under its sway. The key to its destruction is an amnesiac creature who'd much rather be anywhere else, his closest friends have been brainwashed, and if he doesn't act soon, the world will burn to a crisp.
1. Sunrise, Sunfall

It happened fast, as everything should. He shot out of the rocket before it stopped moving, landing smoothly on the ship and letting his momentum carry him forward. Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack. Feet barely hit the metal surface before they were pushing off again. One-two-one-two-one-two. He barely noticed the blades of light just missing his fur, laser beams searing the metal as their target veered away at the last second.

All around was violent red and expansive black. Gleaming metal reared challengingly against impassive space, the cold light of the stars mingling with the harsh fluorescent lights. The worst of the lights were the eyes. Bright purple warning signals, glaring from the top of advancing steel bodies.

He chuckled. This would be fun.

Click-clack-click-clack—the sound cut off as he jumped and curled, flying into the metal bodies. CLANG. Slam into the head, metal crumpling. Feet push off again and again he curls, bouncing into the next and the next and the next. Long blue legs ate up the ground as he left his enemies headless, nothing slowing him…

A wall. He skidded, losing precious speed as the red rose above him. The lights all turned to focus on the giant, bouncing off the metal and into his eyes. Dakkadakkadakka! Gun fire peppered the red paint, following the blue blur as he ran forward again.

Dakkadakkada—the sound stopped. He turned his ear back, listening. Machinery clicked and whirred, smoothly shifting shape. Something changed. He risked looking back, eyes widening as something sleek and silver winked in the light. Missiles, coming in fast.

He held himself, kept his pace, watching out of the corner of his eye as the projectiles neared. At the last moment he leaned forward, almost horizontal, and surged forward, legs churning, faster and— _not fast enough_ , he realized too late. The missiles exploded behind him, slamming him into the wall.

The mech's hand leapt forward. _Fast enough_ , his mind echoed uselessly as ice cold metal closed around the hedgehog. The robot lifted him up, bringing him to face its pilot. A bald human sneered from behind dark blue glasses. His captive smirked back.

 _Now,_ he called. The lights leapt at the signal, the brilliant gems bursting into existence around him. They flooded him, warm and bright and brilliant. For just a moment the world faded into pure, tranquil white… and then it burst.

The machine's fingers were thrown open as a glowing golden figure flew out of them, bright energy crackling around it. The former captive smirked. Artificial gravity had no hold on him now, as he surged forward and sliced through the robot's core like the lasers previously aimed at him. For all his speed he took his time, swooping over the ship before turning to face his opponent.

To his credit, the human knew when to flee. The piloting capsule had already separated from the ruins of the mech and was flying as far and as fast as it could. But far and fast were no use anymore, as the golden figure shot after it like lightning to a rod.

Again, the hedgehog didn't rush. He didn't need to. For all the ingenuity of the machine and its pilot, it was not lightning, it was not a force of nature. It was just another toy to smash.

Their little chase came to a dead end in the main control ship. The capsule crashed to the floor, flinging its passenger across the room. The hedgehog hovered above him, grinning with triumph.

"S-sonic!" The human sat up, frantic. "I-I'm sorry! R-really! L-look, go easy on me!" He backed away, begging, as the golden hedgehog lowered to the floor. "I'll turn over a new leaf, I swear! Just give me a chance!"

"Well, this is new. Showing remorse, Eggman?" The hedgehog mocked, stepping forward. He didn't notice Eggman reaching for a remote, or didn't care. "If you played nice, I wouldn't have to break all your toys."

Eggman's frightened expression fell away as his thumb jabbed down on the button. "Gotcha!" He said, almost too quiet for the hedgehog to hear. A golden ear flicked and he turned around too late at the quiet whir of machinery, mechanical bars erupted out of the floor around him. He tried to fly, but some sort of ring, glowing and blue, grabbed him, pinning his arms to his sides.

Sonic could barely hear the doctor's cackling over the growing hum of the machine. The golden energy was ripped mercilessly from him, pulled away by the machine. He grasped for the lights, but fear and panic and old memories clouded his mind, and they slipped away. Screaming bounced off the metal chamber's walls, and belatedly he realized it was his own voice. The golden glow slipped away as quickly as it had come. The blue hedgehog bucked and writhed, pained and desperate, but the machine only bound him tighter. He struggled to breathe between the tight ring and his own screams. The sound was getting annoying, some conscious corner of his mind observed, but the rest was too fogged with pain to care.

He still felt the lights. They were still there, in his mind, distant beacons calling out. And then… they went out. He froze. That couldn't be right. They didn't _go out._ They were always there… He fought through the clouds of pain, reaching out for them. Images flashed in his mind: a bright green ray, shooting to the earth; a brilliant glow, growing; land cracking and rising and splitting apart as wild, primal energy surged outward. For a moment, he stared into eyes of fire.

Then he was rushing back into himself, but something was rushing back with him. Light, pure and white and wild, at once so similar to and so different to the beacons he knew. It flowed in, warm and bright, and the dark clouds of pain cleared in an instant.

The sound had stopped. It blinked, eyes clearing, and looked upwards curiously. The human was staring with fascination out the window, grinning maniacally. Disgust rolled through the hedgehog, and it growled. Eggman's gaze snapped downward, and his eyes widened behind the dark glasses.

The animal stepped forward, adjusting to its new form. It flexed its claws experimentally, looked at Eggman again. It grinned and leapt. Without a moment's hesitation to spare, Eggman slammed both hands down on the console, a glass shield springing up at the same instant as the window opened. There was no force field outside this part of the ship, no air and no artificial gravity. Just the dark vacuum, pulling the light-twisted creature away from its prey and tossing it down to Earth.


	2. Walk Into The Shadows

Air whistled in Sonic's ears and whipped in his face. He tumbled through the sky, grasping for something, anything, but all he caught were clouds. The light pulsed in and out of his mind; one moment he was Sonic, frightened and confused and trying to gain control of the situation, the next _it_ was there, at once laughing with exhilaration and shaking with fury. As he drew closer to the Earth, breath whipped from his lungs, his mind faded, and Sonic blacked out.

 _It_ filled the empty space. Fully in control now, the creature calmed its rage. There would be time enough for revenge later. It spread its wings, slowly, cautiously, hating how careful it had to be, how fragile this form was. But there would be time for it to grow stronger. In the end, he, whatever he called himself, would make a fine ally. But first, _it_ had to make sure _he_ survived the fall.

Closer and closer to Earth it fell, slower now. White light reached up and surrounded it, further protecting it. It looked down, eyes landing on the closest landmass. There—that place was near trees, and water. Life liked that, right?

At the sight of the green, _his_ mind snapped to full consciousness again, surging forward in an attempt to regain control. The two minds struggled briefly before the light let him take over. His wings, no longer under the control of someone who knew how to use them, were blown back uselessly, and he crashed into the dirt.

* * *

Sonic regained consciousness to find himself already walking. He shook his head, trying to clear the fuzz. Something felt off. He blinked rapidly, trying to focus, but it only made him dizzy. He didn't get dizzy…

He kept walking. He didn't know why. The light lapped at his mind like waves on the shore, one moment controlling him, the next humming at the back of his consciousness. At one point he started running, and at another he stopped, not wanting to draw attention from the town… Town? When had he reached a town? He shook his head again, more vigorously this time, and looked up at the sky. The sun was going down, and with it, the light in his head was dimming.

Red streaks in the sky faded into the cool blues of night. The moon gleamed down, cold and clear. Sonic jumped with a start like he'd just woken up, looking around wildly. He reached up and touched one of his ears. Perfectly fine… How was he perfectly fine? He'd fallen from _space_.

Something flitted at the edge of his attention, distracting him. He squinted, but couldn't see anything in the dim light. Shrugging, he stored away his confusion for another day—or never, really—and started running, shoes kicking up leaves and dirt.

The sizable town was made up of sleek white buildings with cobbled roads wrapping around them. One or two large windmills stood guard. Waves softly rushed in and out on a nearby beach. Salty wind ruffled his quills, warm and wet. Light glowed in every window. Nobody stirred.

Something moved out of the corner of his eye. Sonic slowed, glancing around. He didn't see anything, but anyone could be hiding in the deep shadows cast by the archaic street lights. He picked up his pace again, not in the mood for a fight. He was tired enough as it was.

No one was around and he couldn't read the signs, so he settled beneath a tree. Suited him better than any hotel could, and he didn't have money with him, anyway. He curled into a ball and slowed his breathing, lowering his eyelids but not quite closing them. Not _yet_.

Waves lapped. Wind blew the tree above him, and it almost seemed like he was just being paranoid… _Almost_. He fought away a grin as two round, glowing green eyes appeared out of the darkness, reflecting the starlight as they drew slowly closer. They weren't robotic, certainly. In the moonlight, he could just make out pointed ears and and a long, thin body. It moved warily, back arched like a cat's, ready to run at the slightest threat. Sonic didn't give it the chance.

A gloved hand—those were pretty scratched up, he'd need a new pair—shot out and grabbed the creature behind the head. It thrashed, hissing, as he leapt to his feet.

" _Let me go_ ," it—she—snarled as he studied his pursuer. He jerked in surprise, dropping her, and without another sound she spread bat-like wings and darted back into the shadows.

 _I've never seen someone like that._ He watched for a moment, hoping the creature would come back, but when she didn't he shrugged and curled up again. There was always the morning.


	3. Change My Way

The sun peeked over the horizon, red light seeping over the ocean and up the beach, all the way to the white buildings. Bright rays poured over the sleeping hedgehog. The light fell over him, warmer and warmer until it burned.

Sonic lunged awake with a cry. The light rushed through his veins, into his mind and through his heart, just like before, but this time, something resisted. The light flared in protest, enraged at the obstruction, burning him. Stinging fires lit in every nerve. Sonic could do nothing but curl against the tree, waiting for the two forces to finish their fight over him.

Finally, as the golden sun rose over the city, the pain and burning subsided. The light had claimed all but his mind, where the resisting force refused to budge. Sonic rose unsteadily.

The first thing he noticed was that his fur was a much lighter, brighter shade of blue. He briefly considered the possibility that he had somehow de-aged, but he was still the same height, so that was unlikely. Newly grown claws poked out of the ends of his worn gloves. Through the scratches in his gloves, his hands gleamed an inexplicable yellow.

A voice brought his attention away from his hand, and he pricked his ears—those were bigger, and rounder, and altogether alien. On the plus side, he had sharper hearing now. A kid was saying something in… was that Spanish? No, wait, that was… Greek, right?

Sonic waved. The kid blinked at him, waved shyly, and ran off.

Sonic ambled off in the other direction. He started to break into a run and stumbled, tripping over… his tail? Wonderful. His tail had changed too. Did he even count as a hedgehog anymore? His eyes widened and his hands flew to his head. Sharp quills tore at his gloves, much to his relief. At least something hadn't changed. Though they were a bit more spread out than usual…

Fwip-fwip-fwip. The strange ears caught a faint fluttering sound, and he spun around. The much longer tail didn't quite follow, and he nearly tripped over it. Grimacing, Sonic looked for the source of the noise. Nothing. It had to be that creature again, but why would she be following him?

"Hey! Sonic!"

Sonic blinked. That was English, familiar English. He turned more slowly this time, carefully stepping around the ridiculous tail. Speaking of tails, an orange fox was running towards him, waving energetically.

"Hey, Tails! What are you doing out here?" Sonic stumbled back as Tails tackled him in a hug, which was… unusual.

"I don't know, come on, I gotta show you something!" He grabbed Sonic's arm and started pulling him down the street. Sonic dug in his heels, resisting the odd behavior.

"What do you mean, _you don't know_?"

"It's not important, I have to show you something!" Sonic relented and let the fox drag him down the street. Tails released him as they stepped into some sort of cafe. There was only one other person there, a sullen monkey glaring at them over his newspaper. No one behind the counter.

"Sonic, look at this!" His attention returned to Tails, who had picked the Miles Electric up off a table. The fact that Tails had left it unattended meant this was either more urgent than Sonic realized or Tails had been skipping sleep again.

The screen displayed a map of the world, with odd lines and blotches of bright yellow placed systematically across it. "What's this about?" Sonic tapped the screen curiously.

"It's Light Gaia energy!" Tails declared proudly. Sonic opened his mouth, but Tails was already moving on, apparently not thinking an explanation was needed. "I managed to calibrate the sensors using my knowledge of Chaos energy, they're actually very similar—"

"What is Light Gaia energy?" Sonic interrupted.

"It's like Chaos energy and it's not important," Tails waved his hand impatiently. "What is important is that I found out where it's coming from!" He pointed at a concentrated blotch in the neighborhood of Australia and Indonesia. The yellow lines sprayed out from it in every direction, turning into splats in a few spots, but all tracing back to the one spot.

"Hey, isn't that—" Sonic started to say, but Tails was talking again.

"Now that I know where it is, we can go there and stop it at the source!" Tails slammed his hand down victoriously on the table, making the salt and pepper shakers shudder.

Sonic stared at him, feeling like he'd stepped into a story at the climax instead of the beginning. "Why?"

"For science!" Tails said without a moment's thought. "We can take the Tornado—we'll have to make a few stops along the way—and..."

While the fox rambled on (Sonic was undecided on how normal this was), the hedgehog tapped at the screen, zooming in on the blotch. The device helpfully provided a targeting circle on the exact coordinates. "Huh. That's pretty close to…"

Something dark swept into the corner of his eye, and suddenly the device went flying off the table. It hit the wall with a crack and slid to the ground. The culprit slithered onto the table, eyeing them both warily.

"...why did you do that?"

The creature studied Sonic for a moment with reptilian eyes, and it briefly crossed his mind that he had imagined her speaking last night. Then she rose into a bipedal stance, glaring at him. "You can't go there."

"Why not?" Sonic asked.

Her frown deepened. "I don't know. You shouldn't."

Sonic glanced at Tails with a raised eyebrow, but his snarky comment died on his tongue as he saw the look on his friend's face. Ears twisted back, eyes narrowed, tails deadly still. The fox's sharp teeth were bared in a furious, unrecognizable snarl, and a low growl rumbled in his throat. For a moment all three were frozen. For a moment the air was hot and still. For a long, tense moment fire crackled at the edge of hearing, ready to leap out at any moment.

"Tails, you alright?" Sonic took a step towards him, and the tension snapped. The fox lunged at the creature, and she shot away, bat wings whisking through the air. Sonic jumped between them, raising his hands. "Tails, calm down—" The fox shoved him aside, jumping at the creature again, and Sonic grabbed him, pinning his arms down. "Tails, STOP!" The fox writhed in his arms, snarling. When that didn't work, he bit. Sonic yelped and released him, stumbling backwards.

The two friends stared at each other for a moment. Sonic wasn't sure if he hadn't noticed it before or if it was a recent development, but Tails' pupils were gone. His eyes were pure, bright blue, alien and merciless.

That wasn't Tails.

The fox moved forward again, ready to fight. Whatever was in his eyes, it wouldn't relent. Why would it? What would it matter to the light, if Tails died? It didn't care about one fox, no matter how unusual. It would make him fight, fight to the death if necessary. Anything to destroy the creature hovering in the air above them.

Sonic did what he did best. He ran.


	4. Dear My Not-Friend

Sonic burst through the city in two minutes flat and skidded to a stop on the other side, sand kicking up under his feet. The soft murmur of lapping waves met his ears. He looked out over the green-blue waves, and an unfamiliar disgust filled him, forcing his gaze away.

Looking back the way he came, Sonic estimated he'd run... thirty-five miles? He must have been moving close to the speed of sound, which wasn't unusual, except normally he had to _work up to it_. His acceleration must have increased drastically.

Chalking this up to… whatever Eggman's machine had done to him, he turned to the creature. Thankfully, his ploy had worked; she'd followed him and nobody was hurt. He smiled at her. "So, what's your name?"

"I don't know. Are we not going to talk about the insane fox?" Her eyes were cat-like slits. It reminded him of a friend (or maybe that was just because of the ocean waves), and he laughed.

"Tails isn't insane. But he _was_ acting pretty weird…" Sonic rubbed a finger under his nose thoughtfully, a gesture that earned him an odd look from the creature. "You sure you don't have a name?"

"Pretty sure." She answered dryly. Her ears twisted back and she folded her wings, dropping to the sand with a soft thud. Sonic followed her wary gaze to a group of children, chattering and pointing at them. Nearby, a pair of adults were murmuring to each other, casting wary looks at the hedgehog and his companion.

Sonic smiled and waved at them. "Guess we should keep moving if we don't want a crowd," He lowered his voice, keeping his friendly expression as he started walking back into town.

"What got their attention? The flying snake or the supersonic hedgehog?" The creature mused dryly, slinking after him.

"So you're a flying snake?" Sonic flipped around, walking backwards so he could study her. Her body was long and slender, with a scaly brown underbelly and wide green eyes. But she also had dark brown fur and pointed ears, not typical of a snake. "A flying cat? Flying cat-snake hybrid? Flying ferret?"

She didn't answer, creeping into the lingering morning shade and almost melting from view. Sonic let the conversation go and instead focused on his surroundings. There were more people out than there had been last evening, but something still seemed… off about them. A few of them were shooting him weird looks, but the others… the others weren't quite right. He couldn't put his finger on it.

"You don't blend in very well." He jumped as the creature rematerialized at his feet.

"Yeah, I—" A smell caught Sonic's attention, and his eyes jumped to its source: a row of food vendors. "Hey, are you hungry?"

"Yes."

"What do you want to eat?" Sonic moved towards the vendors, forcing her to follow him out into the open. She kept within his shadow while still a safe distance from his actual self, scurrying like a lizard. "Ice cream?" He suggested, gesturing at a cheerful mustached man with a pink-and-white striped apron, his hands on some sort of sundae as he stared blissfully into space.

"No." She sniffed at the air, cautiously moving towards the vendors, and finally pointed at one. "What's there?"

"Pretzels, hot dogs, souvlaki, bagels," a bored nutria told them, the only one to notice her so far. He gave a long sigh. "And other ridiculously unhealthy street foods."

Sonic walked over to the cart, inspecting the menu. "Can you afford any of this?" The creature questioned, squinting suspiciously at him. Now that he thought about it, Sonic had fallen from _space_ , so whatever money he had was probably shredded.

"We do give out free sample pretzels." The nutria plonked something black and vaguely pretzel-shaped on the counter before returning his attention to a comic book.

Sonic gingerly handed the… _object_ to the creature, who sniffed at it suspiciously. "Thanks!" He tried and failed to make eye contact with the nutria.

"We hope you come again… with money…" The nutria muttered, jotting something down with his eyes glued to the comic book. Sonic shrugged and walked off, creature trailing after him.

"How's it taste?" Sonic asked, having lost all interest in eating the pretzel himself.

The creature took a cautious bite and cocked her head, chewing slowly. "Bad. I like it."

Sonic watched as she devoured the pretzel. "I'm gonna need a nickname for you. How about Pretzel?"

"That's an awful name. What do they call you, Hot Dog?" The newly-christened Pretzel flicked her tail disdainfully, its sharp tip scraping on the pavement.

"Sonic, actually."

"Creative."

"If you would rather I call you Flappy—"

"Pretzel's fine."

Sonic chuckled. "You really don't know your own name?"

"I don't remember anything."

He stopped, blinking at her. "Nothing?"

"Nothing _clear_ , just… impressions." She paused to pick at her teeth with a sharp, blue claw before scuttling forward again.

He cocked his head at her as he resumed walking. "What about the place Tails was talkin' about?"

She shook her head. "All I know is it's dangerous."

"'Danger' is my middle name," he laughed.

She looked at him disdainfully for a moment before stalking off, disappearing into a shadowy doorway. Sonic was tempted to ask exactly _how_ she managed to do this on such a bright morning, but guessed the answer would be no more helpful than her previous ones.

Sonic noticed a friendly-looking cyan wolf and darted over, nearly flattening him; his acceleration was definitely faster. Oddly, the wolf didn't seem to notice he'd almost been pancaked by a hedgehog. "Hello!" He beamed at Sonic. "What's your name?"

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog," Sonic declared proudly. "I'm kind of lost. Could you tell me a bit about this place?" He waved his hand in a broad gesture at the white town.

"You're in Apotos! The finest city this side of Greece!" The wolf gazed cheerfully into the distance. "We have beautiful architecture, a refreshing ocean—"

"That's great," Sonic interrupted. "Has there been anything… _odd_ going on lately?"

The wolf smiled blankly at him. "Everything is fine!"

"Somehow I doubt that." Pretzel muttered, moving out of the shadows to study the wolf. He stiffened, nostrils flaring as he stared down at her. His smile suddenly became something much more menacing.

"Hey, buddy?" Sonic asked, touching his shoulder. "You al—"

The wolf snarled and lunged just as Pretzel dove to the side. He whirled with lightning speed, teeth sinking into her tail, and she hissed, writhing. Before the wolf could bite off her tail, Sonic slammed him into the wall.

"Let _go_!" Sonic kept pushing the wolf into the wall, sneakers squeaking on the pavement. The wolf growled and sank his teeth in further.

Pretzel unfurled her wings and curled up her own length like a snake held by its tail. She slashed at the wolf with her claws, bloody scratches underlining his eyes, and still he wouldn't yield. Sonic reached up and squeezed the corners of the wolf's muzzle, forcing it open, and Pretzel surged away.

Sonic sprinted after her, glancing back to see the wolf moving after them. A smaller, redder wolf sprinted out of the door and wrapped its arms around their pursuer. He stopped, blinking in confusion, and Sonic followed Pretzel out of sight.

* * *

Thanks so much to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, and followed! I appreciate any feedback on what I'm doing right and what I can improve. :) Hope you enjoy!


	5. It's Not Stealing If It's Yours

"Something is definitely going on." Sonic peered down at the town from his perch, watching as its inhabitants wandered around in a blissful daze. Pretzel crouched next to him, ready to take off as soon as someone spotted her. Nearly everyone they'd met so far had flown into a murderous rage as soon as they saw Pretzel, and those who hadn't had shot them a wary look and ran off. It was definitely _odd_.

"You mean people aren't usually like this?" Pretzel asked dryly, tail flicking with nervous energy.

Sonic ignored the quip. "Do you have any idea why they hate you?"

"No."

He studied her for a minute. "Do you want to remember?"

She froze with a thoughtful frown. Glancing at the town below, her ears flattened against her skull. "Maybe I don't." Her tail started flicking again, more agitated, and she grimaced at him. "I don't want to, but I need to. It's safer to know."

Sonic smiled. "Then I'll help you." Pretzel cocked an eyebrow, and he shrugged. "It's what I do."

"I'll hold you to that." Pretzel warned seriously, and he laughed, deepening her frown.

"I think your memories have something to do with… whatever this is." Sonic waved his hands at Apotos in general. "Your amnesia and the weird behavior started around the same time, right?" When she nodded, he pointed beyond the white buildings. "Then I think we should hitch a ride and find someone who knows what's going on."

"Hitch a ride?" Pretzel asked as he stood and jumped off the building, zipping towards the airfield.

Sonic quickly had to stop short of hitting another dazed citizen, and then jumped to the side around a dog before slamming into a wall. He got up, shaking his head, and resumed running, trying to rein in his unpredictable new speed. At last he skidded to a halt at the airfield, letting Pretzel catch up.

"Tails mentioned the Tornado, so I figured—ah ha!" Sonic darted over to a red and white biplane, hopping in and rummaging around under the seat.

"We're stealing it?" Pretzel asked, eyes lighting up as she perched on the side of the plane.

"Technically it's my plane," Sonic found the key and inserted it.

"Technically," Pretzel smirked, sliding into the backseat.

Sonic moved to start the engine, paused, and jumped out of the plane again so he could drag it to an open space. He felt Pretzel's concerned gaze following him; it was a familiar feeling. He smirked to himself. His friends really had no sense of adventure sometimes.

"Do you know how to fly it?" She demanded.

Sonic laughed. "Of course I do, it's my plane!" He jumped back in and started the engine raising his voice over the noise. "I've been flying this since I was a year old!"

"WHAT!?" Panic filled Pretzel's voice, or what he could hear of it. "Maybe we shouldn't—"

"It's fine!" Sonic waved his hand casually and turned back to the front. "How do I do this again… oh yeah."

"Wait!" Pretzel yelled, and the engine drowned out whatever else she was going to say as the plane moved forward.

"What did you say?" Sonic shouted as the plane began to lift off. She didn't respond, and he glanced back to see her clinging to the seat, wide-eyed and with her wings spread around her. _She'll feel better once we get in the air,_ he assured himself. The plane broke through the clouds and rose above a sea of white. It occured to Sonic that he'd forgotten what altitude most people could breathe at, but Pretzel was a flier, she'd be _fine_.

"Where are we going?" His larger ears picked up her shout now that they were away from the noise of the ground. He looked back again while he pulled out a map. She was still digging her claws into the seat, but at least she didn't seem on the verge of jumping out anymore.

"Well _originally_ I was thinkin' we'd head to Station Square, but the booster engine isn't here, so it'd take us… about twenty hours, give or take. Plus, we don't seem to have much fuel, so I guess we'll be landing at…" He unfolded the map and squinted at it. "Somewhere in Italy? I dunno." He carelessly tossed it back to her, and was rewarded with a squeak of protest as it covered her face. "Then I s'pose we'll get some fuel and make some calls. Maybe someone there will know something."

"This is _the worst_ plan I've ever heard."

"Heh, then you don't know me! I've come up with _way_ worse!" He joked. Given her silence, it fell flat.

A few hours later the plane began to descend again, parting the clouds and gliding to a halt in a mostly-empty field. A lone cow glared at them, and Sonic waved at it as he hopped out of the plane.

"I think there's a town… that way." Sonic studied the map and pointed. "I can run there, easy, but can you—"

"Go ahead," Pretzel interrupted. "I'll go my own pace."

Sonic considered arguing, but the light stirred restlessly within him, reminding him that it was getting dark. Running at night, with this unpredictable speed, would be a disaster. "Alright. See ya there!" He zipped off, following a sign labeled "Spagonia".

Neat brown buildings lined smooth streets, peppered with restaurants and clock towers. Few people were out, watching the sun set. Sonic made for one of the few restaurants still open and sat at an outdoor table, tapping his fingers impatiently as he waited for Pretzel to catch up. Something moved out of the corner of his eye and he looked up to the rooftops, but he couldn't see anyone in the dusk. He was about to investigate when the red sun sank behind the horizon, and the last of its rays slipped away.

The breath was shoved out of Sonic's lungs as the light seized him, desperate and animal-like, never weakening its fierce grip even as it melted away with the sunlight. It was like the very blood was being pulled from Sonic's veins, and he was glad he'd decided to sit down as the world spun dimly.

"...Sonic?" A cool claw tapped him lightly, and the world stilled. He sat up, shivering. "Oh, it _is_ you." Pretzel stared at him with narrowed eyes. "You're not possessed?"

Sonic groaned, and his head hit the table again with a bonk. He drifted off into blissful silence before being rudely awoken by a sharp jab to his side.

"You can't sleep here, you'll look like a hobo." Pretzel's cool voice blended with the cold night and he nearly passed out again. A sharp nip woke him up and he glared at her. She bared her teeth, and he forced himself to his feet. Walking kept him awake, at least. He studied his torn gloves, wondering why he hadn't felt so tired last time he'd de-transformed. Than again, the first time he'd transformed he'd been in a daze for most of the time, so maybe that didn't count?

"Where do you live, anyway?" Pretzel's voice jerked his wandering mind back. He shrugged.

"So you _are_ a hobo." She flicked her tail, whacking him with the sharp tip.

The pain and the insult combined dragged him further into wakefulness. "If you lost your memories, how do you know what a hobo is?" He asked irritably.

"I also know how to fly, walk, and talk, clearly memory is an overrated invention." She snapped back.

Sonic huffed. "That's muscle memory, it's different."

"My brain is a muscle," Pretzel pointed out. Her ears flicked and she whipped around, frowning at nothing, before refocusing on him. Vague concern muttered in the back of Sonic's head, but he couldn't quite see what there was to worry about through the clouds of exhaustion.

"That's not how it works— look, I'm a _hedgehog_ , not a hobo." He scowled at her, determined to win the argument if nothing else.

Pretzel stared at him. "You… you do know hobo isn't a species, right?"

Before Sonic could answer, the sound of approaching footsteps made them both jump, and Pretzel slipped out of sight.

"Hello?" The owner of the feet, a brown-haired young man, called hesitantly.. "Are you Sonic the Hedgehog?"

Sonic turned to face him, forcing a smile. "Yup. That's… that's me." He tried and failed to come up with a witty quip.

"Could you come with me, please?" The man looked around nervously.

Sonic couldn't come up with a reason to refuse, so he shrugged. "Sure."

The man nodded and started leading him through the town. Sonic took note of the route in an attempt to keep himself awake. Fortunately, they arrived quickly at a massive, pillared building. Tall, dark doors swung open as the young man gestured him inside. He lead him through the empty halls to a smaller door. The man knocked loudly and then stepped aside.

The door swung open to reveal an older man in a rumpled brown suit. He peered down from under drooping grey eyebrows. "Ah, there you are. Come in, please."

"Thanks. Uh… who are you, again?" Sonic asked, shaking his head in a futile attempt to clear the fog of exhaustion growing ever thicker.

"I am Professor Pickle." The man gestured him over to the couch, and Sonic gratefully sat down. "I am an expert in ancient literature, and I have some information I believe…" His voice faded away as Sonic passed out once again.


	6. The Sun Always Rises

Maybe it was the pain, maybe it was the light, maybe it was the screaming, but if Sonic had to guess, he'd say it was the rush of energy that woke him. He leapt gracefully off the couch and spun to face the danger. There was… nothing. He glanced confusedly at the screaming human, realizing belatedly that the terrified screeches were directed at _him_.

"Good morning!" Professor Pickle called, blithely ignoring his still-screaming assistant.

"G'morning, Professor!" Sonic bounced over to join the old man at the window. Early morning light, still tinged with red, beamed through the glass. Sonic grinned back.

"As I was telling you last night, I believe I have found the—" The Professor paused and frowned at his assistant, who was still screeching. "Say, Cucumber, is something wrong?"

The younger man stared at him. "He— it's— it _transformed_!" He hissed in a whisper, as if afraid "it" would hear him.

"You are being very rude," Professor Pickle chided.

His assistant stared at him blankly for a moment, looked at Sonic, and then left without a word. The door slammed behind him.

"What an odd young man." Professor Pickle chuckled, drawing Sonic's attention back to him. "Now, as I was saying, I believe I have found the solution to our problem."

"Problem?" Sonic echoed, following him across the room to a bookshelf.

"The creature awoken by Dr. Robotnik," The Professor pulled down a book. "Perhaps you haven't heard of it, but it's causing quite a fuss."

He opened the book to show a picture of an old painting. It looked like the yin yang symbol, but when Sonic looked closer, he could see it actually depicted two creatures tangled around each other.

"Light Gaia," The Professor tapped the white, bird-like creature. "Is the one that seems to have awoken. It's upset many people, and if it is not put to sleep it may very well burn our world to a crisp."

"You said you have a solution?" Sonic raised an eyebrow. His ear flicked at the creaking of the door, but a glance towards it showed it was nothing but the wind.

"Yes, see," The Professor flipped through the book. "In the past, all it took to subdue a Gaia was activating the Gaia Temples with the Chaos Emeralds."

"Sounds simple." Sonic leaned forward to get a better look at the text.

"Too simple, if you ask me," A smooth voice interjected, and Sonic spun to face the intruder. He relaxed slightly when he recognized her.

"Was that really necessary, Rouge?"

She shrugged, smirking. "Perhaps." She laid a finger on the page, tapping it lightly. "I couldn't help but overhear—"

"Because you were listening," Sonic interjected, grinning.

"And what the Professor failed to mention was that the Gaia Temples were used to subdue _Dark_ Gaia in the past." Rouge looked at Professor Pickle. "Isn't that right, Professor?"

"It is," He admitted, taking the book from her. "But it stands to reason that it would work on Light Gaia as well."

Rouge considered him for a moment. "If you say so, Professor." She turned to Sonic. "Hey Blue, when was the last time you ate?"

Sonic cocked his head, considering. "Y'know, I'm actually not—"

"Breakfast is on me." Rouge grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door, leaving Professor Pickle to fuss over his manuscripts.

"Since when do you know about 'Gaias' and all that?" Sonic waved his arms vaguely.

"I talked to him yesterday," Rouge glanced back before nodding him down a side street. "It was all he'd talk about, Light Gaia this, Dark Gaia that. Who's your friend?"

Sonic blinked. "Who— oh, Pretzel?" He perked his ears, catching the faint scratch of her claws on the pavement. "Just somebody I picked up in Apotos." They sat down, and Rouge ordered their food. While they waited, Sonic told Rouge what he knew, which admittedly wasn't much.

"It's not surprising you haven't heard much," Rouge speared a banana slice with her fork. "The dangerous thing about it is that anyone affected by the crisis doesn't _think_ it's a crisis."

"So it's like… brainwashing?" Sonic asked, passing a lemon to Pretzel, who was hiding under his seat.

"Basically," Rouge waved her fork in his face. "And I believe the good professor himself has been affected."

"How do you know I'm not affected?" Sonic joked.

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Even if you were, it wouldn't make much of a difference."

Sonic laughed. "That's fair. What brings you into this?"

"Even _I_ care if everyone in the world is brainwashed, Blue." Seeing his look, she sighed. "GUN sent me to question the Professor and find you. Fortunately for me, you turned up before I left the area."

"Find me?" Sonic's tail flicked restlessly. "Why?"

"They're hoping you'll solve _all_ their problems," She paid the bill and simpered at the waiter. "Do you know where the Chaos Emeralds are?"

"Eggman has 'em," Sonic glanced upwards briefly, though he doubted the Doctor was still up there. "So GUN wants me to follow Professor Pickle's plan? Why?"

Rouge shrugged, looking irritated. "They didn't tell me."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "They didn't tell you? Aren't you one of their best agents?"

"You don't need to rub it in," She stood, stretching. "I'm just the messenger—" she said the last word with disdain "—so my work here is done." She looked down at his plate. "You should eat that. You're going to need your energy."

"Eh," Sonic shoved it aside and stood, following her. "Why would I follow Professor Pickle's plan if he's brainwashed?"

Rouge paused, placing a hand on her hip as she considered him. "...that's a good question. Why _would_ you follow Professor Pickle's plan?"

A moment passed, punctuated by the wind blowing down the street, whisking away what few voices there were. The white bat kept his gaze, challenging.

"Alright," A lose grin spilled over Sonic's face. "What's _your_ plan?"

Rouge smirked, revealing her fangs. "I thought you'd never ask."

* * *

Sorry for the late upload! I started school recently, so I think I'll only be posting a chapter every two weeks. Hope that's alright with everyone!


	7. The Point

Hedgehog and bat perched on top of a building. Sonic kept one foot on the ledge as he ate a chili dog, looking out over the city as he listened to Rouge, who was sitting unseen in the morning shadow of a generator. People moved in the streets below, laughing and talking cheerfully with each other. Pretzel crouched several feet to the right of him, wary and watchful.

"As I said before, the Gaia Temples and Chaos Emeralds were always used to _strengthen_ Light Gaia."

"So we don't do that. Got it."

Rouge ignored him. "Historically, Light Gaia has always fought with Dark Gaia upon awakening. They would battle until they were too weak to continue, and then go to rest in the planet's core."

"Are you suggesting we find Dark Gaia?" Sonic raised an eyebrow at her, still keeping his gaze on the city. The sun seemed to be rising faster than usual, though admittedly he didn't have a lot to compare it to. _I need to visit this area again sometime._

"They are natural opposites. If we find Dark Gaia and equip it to fight Light Gaia, the two will weaken each other sufficiently for us to finish them off, even if they don't seal themselves."

"You've really been readin' up on this. But isn't Dark Gaia, I don't know, _evil_?"

Rouge shrugged. "Fight fire with fire."

"Is _Light Gaia_ evil?" Sonic asked, glancing back at her, but she didn't answer. "I mean, mostly it just seems to be making things bright and… happy." He perked his ears—gah, they felt so _weird—_ at the crowd below, chattering happily to each other.

Rouge apparently didn't feel the need to answer. Sonic kept watching the street, leaning forward. He yelped as his vision shifted unexpectedly, the world brightening. Everyone seemed to glow with varying degrees of brightness, everything else dulling, as if he was looking through thermal goggles. He glanced at Rouge, but she blended almost completely into the shadows. Only a very faint, dull red revealed her presence.

A flash of color stood out below, drawing his attention. A dark shape among the brightness of the crowd, holding something in its hands… Sonic's eyes narrowed. Odd…

" _Thief_!" Someone shouted, and as one the bright crowd turned on the dark shape. The shapes flared with fire, brightening even further, as they converged on the thief. Sonic started to move, only to feel a hand grab his shoulder.

"We don't need to draw attention to ourselves." Rouge reminded him. He looked at her and she took a step back, wings flaring warily. Her eyes narrowed. "Sonic… ?"

Pretzel's tail tip scraped on the stone as she hissed, arching her back. Sonic's eyes widened as he looked at her— pure black, the black of the ocean, down and down… He blinked and his vision cleared, returning to normal.

"What—" He stopped, looking at the crowd again. The thief was running, pursued by previously smiling citizens, their faces now twisted with fury. The thief vaulted onto a low building and ran out of their reach, and within moments of losing their prey the crowd returned to cheerful conversation as if nothing had happened.

"What's up with you?" Rouge asked, folding her arms as she frowned at him.

"I guess it's this… transformation… thing," He frowned at his clawed, yellow hand as if it was the culprit. "Everything looked weird."

"Alright…" Rouge joined him at the edge of the building, still keeping a safe distance away. "Are you going to help me?"

"Yeah," Sonic looked at the blissful crowd that had been planning murder a minute ago. "Yeah, definitely. What's the plan?"

"We follow GUN's plan for now," Rouge pushed off the building, flapping her wings to slow her descent. Sonic jumped after her, landing lightly on the sidewalk beside her.

Remembering what he'd seen with the odd "light vision", he surreptitiously moved between Rouge and the view of the crowd. He wasn't sure if the brainwashed people saw like he had, but he didn't want to risk getting them attacked. If she noticed, she didn't show it.

"We go to the Gaia Temples and gather intel. We should also steal the Chaos Emeralds back from Eggman. For safety reasons, of course."

"Of course." Sonic echoed, laughing. "And then what?"

"We find Dark Gaia and take it to Light Gaia." She stopped at the corner, looking at him.

"Nice and simple. I like it." Sonic looked around and was relieved to see Pretzel trailing behind them, hugging the shadows.

Rouge followed his gaze. "Your little friend is probably tied into this more than we know."

"Definitely," Sonic agreed.

"Do you have the Tornado?" Rouge pulled a device out of her uniform pocket, tapping something into it.

"Yeah, it's nearby."

Rouge handed him the device, showing him coordinates somewhere in Kenya. "Can it get us there?"

"It needs to be refueled, but it could get us there in about… nineteen hours? Oooor it would take seven hours if I ran us there. Not counting stops either way."

Rouge considered. "The faster the better. I'll retrieve my protective gear." She pushed into the air, flapping her wings to hover above his head.

"Hey, where's Shadow?" Sonic asked, squinting up at her. "Chaos Control-ing over there would be a _lot_ simpler."

"He's on a mission. One _I'm_ not allowed to know about." Venom leaked into her voice, but she regained her composure in a beat and winked at him. "See you in thirty, blue boy."

Sonic watched her fly off. "I've gotta take care of the Tornado, if I'm leaving it here." He looked at Pretzel. "You coming?"

"Are you coming back here?" She frowned at the nearby crowd, ears flattening. "I'll just hide nearby."

"I'll be back before you know it," Sonic promised.

Pretzel ignored him, slithering into the shadows and out of view. Considering how few shadows there were, it was an impressive feat.

Sonic spun on his feet and started running, leaning nearly parallel to the ground. Bright energy poured through him, and the faster he ran the more there seemed to be. The crowd split before him as he burst forward, the air bending around him. His senses blurred. All he saw was light and shadow, the wind singing in his ears and smoothing his quills behind him. He laughed, and the sound flew away in the gust. This was all he needed.

* * *

Everything was bright, too bright. She pressed to the wall, pulling the shadows around her like a blanket. The heat still poked through, trying to suffocate her. She hissed and tried to push farther into the darkness, but the wall remained firm and unyielding.

"Commander," A low, cool voice caught her attention, and her eyes flicked to its origin. A dark spot in all the blinding light.

It was a slender hedgehog, similar to Sonic except for his black coat. Pretzel blinked against the glare, trying to see the details better. She got the feeling she didn't have very good eyesight, or not the right _kind_ of eyesight. _As if that makes sense._

"…she has found Sonic and convinced him to help her." The hedgehog paused, listening. "There is one problem, however. They are making their own plans. She is planning to disobey you." He winced, and Pretzel caught a burst of sound coming from the device in the hedgehog's gloved hand. The sound quieted, and after a moment the hedgehog nodded. "Understood, sir." The hedgehog put the device away and started walking. He paused next to Pretzel's hiding place, looking around with a slight frown.

Pretzel drew the shadows tighter around her and held perfectly still. The hedgehog moved on, and she watched until he was out of sight. The dark spot disappeared, and she was left alone in the harsh light again.


	8. Act 2: Paper Boats

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." -Proverbs 16:18, ESV

" _Light can't be a bad thing, can it?"_

" _We need the night, to rest… and dream… We need the shadows, so we can know it's day."_

" _I s'pose so."_

" _And too much light… it's blinding. It burns and burns until you can't… you can't see anything anymore. No more colors. Just black and white, and fire never stops… Fire doesn't care…"_

" _I'm sorry."_

" _It's not your fault. Just don't let it burn you."_

(there's an act 1 intro too. It's on DeviantArt [ animaginarycolor/art/Sonic-Leashed-Act-1-intro-761126356], I just didn't put it here because I figured people would want to jump right in. :)


	9. Down to the Sea

Wind. That was all there was. Cool wind, blowing around him and over him and through him. He relished the chill, the biting sting, the rush of it. He blazed across the country, colors and shapes blurring into a blanket of motion. This was how it should be. This was right. Sonic whooped, the sound torn away almost before it left his mouth.

A hand tightened its death grip on his arm as he leapt over a rock. He glanced down apologetically at his passenger. Rouge clung to him, black wings shielding her and Pretzel from the biting wind as best they could. Pretzel was even less comfortable than the bat, curled in a ball with her claws digging into Rouge's uniform.

Sonic's eyes leapt back ahead as his shoes hit pavement. There were no vehicles on the road, and something told Sonic this was not right. But he wasn't listening to that part of himself, his ears tuned only to the wind. He raced through the town, buildings and people nothing but streaks of color.

Something in the wind changed. It was heavier now, weighed down with… salt. Moisture. They were approaching the sea. He leaned forward, ready to pick up speed, though it really wasn't necessary. At the speed of sound, water was no issue.

He saw the ocean. Vast, dark, blue, cool and still. Something uncurled like a snake within him, hissing and lashing at the sight of the water. Something made his heartbeat accelerate, jerky and wild. Something made his eyes widen, his ears flatten, and his feet suddenly dig into the ground. He fought with himself, trying to keep his momentum going, trying to fight the foreign fear, but by now his speed was broken and he had to stop, shaking his head, at the water's edge.

Rouge slid gracefully out of his arms, while Pretzel lunged away with a hiss. They both watched as the creature dove into the water, wriggling around like she was trying to escape her own skin. Apparently, this behavior didn't warrant Rouge's attention for long, and she focused on Sonic.

"What's the hold up, Blue?" Her tone was smooth as always, but her crossed arms and tilted posture gave away her impatience. "I thought we weren't taking the ferry?"

Sonic tried moving towards the water, but the coiled fear bit without hesitation, digging its fangs into his heart and making him stumble back with a gasp. "Change of plans, I guess." Sonic studied the water. It was the same as any ocean. The same as any water, discounting the salt.

He couldn't swim, yes. He wouldn't want to drown, sure. But this? This fear made no sense. He wasn't in the water. He could cross it easily. Why—

His eyes went to Pretzel almost of their own accord. She was still in the water, rubbing at her scales as if burned. _Burned._ His eyes dropped to the yellow fur poking through his gloves and then to the flame-shaped tip of his tail. It had to be the new form. That light, that _fire_ , hated the water.

"Alright, I've bought us tickets for the ferry." Rouge sauntered back, and Sonic realized with a twinge of irritation that he hadn't noticed her leaving. "I take it we won't being running across any oceans today?"

"'Fraid so." Sonic grinned at her, shoving the coiled fear down to whatever corner it came from.

"Luckily for us, we don't have much of wait." She offered him a chili dog in a plastic container. "Hungry?"

"Probably," Sonic looked at Pretzel.

"I'm hungry," She said bluntly before he could ask.

Sonic smirked and split the chili dog in two. He let her keep the container. _Not like my gloves can get any dirtier_ , he realized ruefully. Tails would throw a fit, if he wasn't brainwashed.

He laughed to himself, then stopped, frowning. _Was_ that something to laugh about? Were people aware they were brainwashed? There was that thought again, that maybe what Light Gaia was doing was good. Maybe they weren't brainwashed, maybe they were just _happy_. Maybe Light Gaia just took away the bad things. That was what light did, right?

For the next fifteen minutes Sonic alternated between introspection and playing chicken with the ocean. He got close to putting his foot in the water, but the fear surged with a vengeance and he was three hundred meters away before he knew it.

"Time to go," Rouge declared, throwing a styrofoam cup of coffee into the trash. Sonic zipped over to join her, nearly annihilating a trash can in the process. She smirked at his sheepish grin.

"What about Pretzel?" Sonic suddenly remembered, glancing at the creature sulking under a chair.

Rouge tapped her nose thoughtfully, studying the creature. "Perhaps she could qualify for the child—"

"I'll fly." Pretzel interrupted, taking off before they could respond. She was slower than Rouge, Sonic noticed. She wasn't exactly _slow_ , but she definitely wasn't _fast_.

Sonic and Rouge made their way to the ferry. They waited in line until they reached the main passenger area. Rouge wandered off, presumably to flatter an innocent passenger into giving her something. Sonic tentatively moved to the edge, glancing down at the water. His hands clenched on the railing, and he felt his claws jab into his palm. Grimacing, he backed away and focused on the sky instead.

Sonic spotted a dark spot in the bright blue and waved. The spot dove unexpectedly towards him, and he instinctively ducked as Pretzel swooped down to land on the railing. She grinned mischievously at him, showing her fangs.

"You said you were flying," Sonic stepped to the side, crossing his arms petulantly.

"I did." Pretzel yawned, showing off her fangs again.

Sonic shook his head and turned his eyes to the sky again, resisting the urge to pace.

"We're fortunate the ferry's running at all," Rouge observed, joining them with a put out expression. "Everyone I've talked to so far is brainwashed."

"Maybe it's automated?" Sonic suggested.

Rouge studied the passengers around them. "I'm more concerned about why they feel the need to cross. Are they under orders? Or just following routine?"

"Maybe we could ask," Sonic half-joked, but remembered the last time he'd tried questioning a brainwashed citizen and waved Rouge's considering expression away.

At last the ferry reached the other shore—Messina, several signs read. He tapped his foot impatiently as they waited to disembark. He watched enviously as Pretzel slipped off the ship and flew to shore without drawing any attention, her every movement silent. He glanced back at Rouge to see an amused expression on her face. He huffed sullenly, and she laughed.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, he lifted Rouge and started running, grinning at her yelp and glare. Pretzel dove to join them, landing on Rouge with claws out. The bat yelped, and the sound was whipped away as Sonic accelerated, light pouring through his veins as they easily breached the sound barrier. There was no need for roads. The wind and the fire carried him easily, across the green and to the blue again.


	10. Dust, Heat, and Thieves

"I think the ferry's that way," Rouge shouted, pointing. Or he thought that was what she shouted; it was hard to hear, with the wind screaming in his too-big ears and sound barely keeping up with them.

Sonic smirked. "We're not gonna need the ferry."

Rouge stared at him. "I appreciate your determination, but I would really rather not drown."

He'd slowed to a pace a few mph below the speed of sound so they could actually speak to each other. The whipping wind was still a problem, until Pretzel unexpectedly swiped a clawed hand in the hair. Somehow, the air around them stilled and cooled, shadows pooling around Sonic's blurring feet.

Rouge glanced at the creature, but seemed more immediately concerned with not drowning. "You were unable to put your toe in the water back there. I'd rather you not put us at risk for the sake of your pride."

Sonic shook his head. With the rushing, burning wind gone, his head felt cooler and clearer. The rash determination that had fueled his decision was gone, replaced with calm certainty. He'd run on water before. He could do this. It was faster and more practical. It made sense.

"Pretzel, whatever you're doing, keep it up," He pinned his ears back and leaned forwards as far as he could, accelerating again. The light crackled, disgruntled, but he hardly needed it at this point. He was up to speed, and he'd never run out of energy mid-run before.

"You better be right," Rouge warned. "This uniform is worth a lot more than you."

Sonic's only response was flashing her a grin, and then they were surging off the dock and onto the water. For just a moment that fear lunged up again, biting, but he was already on the water, and sheer instinct pushed away the fear and kept him running. Salt blew in his face, hot and humid. His shoes were soaked, _another thing for Tails to have a fit about._ He didn't let the thought slow them.

Pretzel peered down at the ocean flying below them, the occasional silvery fish darting away from the rushing feet. Whatever shield-thing Pretzel had created, it muffled only the roaring of the wind, leaving them to the splash of Sonic's feet on the water. Rouge started humming quietly after about five minutes of the quiet.

Fourteen minutes after they left, Sonic touched down on land, and the fear threw him to the ground, his legs collapsing under the onslaught of terror. He stayed on his hands and knees, shuddering and heaving. The white fury and fear blanked out his senses, muting whatever Rouge was saying. He kept his eyes fixed on his hands. Counted his breaths. Focused on anything that _didn't_ fill him with unnatural terror.

He sat up as abruptly as he'd fallen, shaking out his quills like a dog shedding water. Rouge handed him a water bottle without comment, and he gratefully drank it. By the time he'd finished she was handing him a pair of clean socks, politely turning her head away while he dried his feet and put his shoes back on.

Thankfully, neither Rouge nor Pretzel commented on what had happened. Maybe they didn't care. He explored the city—Tunis, it was called—while Rouge wheedled for supplies and Pretzel… well, he guessed she was sleeping somewhere cool and dark, but he wasn't sure.

The city wasn't unlike Apotos, all white buildings, green trees, and the constant lapping of the blue ocean. He could see the island they'd come from, Sicily, in the distance across the blue sea. Narrow grey streets broke up the dirty white buildings. Blue doors, windows, and railings accented the white, and people walked around in that same cheerful daze.

"We have what we need," Rouge called, walking up with a colorful bag full of water bottles and snacks. Pretzel slipped out of the shadows and joined them; she'd been closer than Sonic realized. He lifted the bat up again—she was light, like most fliers—and this time waited for Pretzel to settle before he burst off again.

Within five minutes they left the green of Tunis behind and were racing through dry brown towns, dust clouding around them. Rouge looked hopefully at Pretzel, but apparently she didn't think this warranted a shield.

Twenty minutes of stumbling over tiny green shrubs later, they arrived at another seaside town, where Sonic paused to drink some water and let Rouge and Pretzel cool off. Rouge grumbled to herself as she tried to wash the dust out of her white fur. She considered her uniform for a moment before ripping off the sleeves, handing one to Sonic and tying the other around her mouth. After a few more minutes of dusty running, he gave in and tied the sleeve around his own muzzle.

For the next three-or-so hours, everything blurred into a dusty yellow haze. Rouge made sure he stopped at least once an hour so they could drink water—she was _not_ about to have them pass out in the middle of the Sahara. Then it was on again, blazing down the road as quickly as they could. The heat barely bothered Sonic, something he thanked his new form for. Pretzel, meanwhile, seemed half-dead. He was surprised Rouge hadn't ripped the legs off her oh-so-precious uniform yet.

They skidded to a stop in a large city, dust swirling around them like massive wings. "Kano," Rouge told him, too tired and grumpy to elaborate. "Not friendly to people like us. Keep your head down."

They rested for an hour in a cool restaurant. Rouge was the only one who ate; Pretzel nibbled half-heartedly at a snack, but seemed to exhausted to do anything.

Rouge raised an eyebrow at the limp creature. "At least we know she isn't from the desert."

Sonic laughed. "Yeah. With the short fur and the scales, I doubt she lived in the arctic, either."

"Before you ask," Pretzel interjected, opening one green, reptilian eye to glare at them. "I have no idea."

"You and Shadow would get along," Rouge chuckled, and then scowled at her drink. "I'm going to try and clean up." She said, abruptly standing and heading for the bathroom.

"Kinda pointless!" Sonic called after her, but the bat ignored him. He shook his head and chuckled.

"Why aren't you eating?" Pretzel asked abruptly, looking up at him. "You've eaten next to nothing since I… 'met' you."

Sonic raised his eyebrows at the implied apostrophes but didn't comment. "I just don't feel like it." Feeling her stare, he explained, "I think this form gives me the energy I need without having to eat."

"That's not how you usually are?" Pretzel grabbed Rouge's cup off the table and poured it on herself without a pause, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. For a moment Sonic was too distracted to answer.

"No, no, of course not!" Sonic's tail lashed, reminding him of just how different this form was.

"You seem comfortable," Pretzel flopped back down on the floor. She seemed almost asleep with her eyes half-closed, but her ears swiveled alertly and her voice remained sharp as always.

Sonic studied his dust-stained yellow paws. "It feels… familiar, I guess." He instinctively reached for the colored lights, but all he found was the bright, burning fire, and shuddered unconsciously. It was almost… _lonely_ without them singing in the very back of his mind.

Pretzel nodded and let her eyes slide closed. Sonic could have let the conversation end there, but his eyes drifted to her ever alert ears and something made him continue.

"But it's not _comfortable_. If I was _comfortable_ I wouldn't be worried or… afraid…" The last word wasn't even a whisper, and yet she sat up when she heard. Her eyes studied him, sharp, cutting him into bits for further study.

"Fire isn't comfortable," She agreed, and lay back down again.

Moments slid by. The restaurant was quiet. No brainwashed citizens, and barely any normal ones, either. One glared at them from a corner, while three others talked. Their voices were relaxed, but there was tension in the way they sat, ready to run at a moments notice. Was it because of the crisis, or because of Sonic's presence? Rouge had said this place wasn't friendly to people like them.

There were plenty of places like that, Sonic recalled as he sipped lukewarm water. Tails had told him it often had to do with religion. Most old beliefs didn't account for intelligent species other than mankind, and… well… change and unfamiliarity had a tendency to bring out the worst in the average human.

"We have to go, right now, immediately," Rouge burst out of the bathroom, keeping her voice low as her eyes darted around the room. She grabbed the bag and shoved the water bottles into it. She grabbed her cup, tilted it, and frowned when nothing came out before tossing it aside.

"What's the rush?" Sonic asked, stretching out his arms.

Rouge's eyes flitted towards the bathroom door as if expecting Perfect Chaos to burst out of the toilet at any minute. "I mentioned this place isn't friendly to us? I may have made things worse. Now let's get going before I change your nickname to Black-and-Blue." Her wings flared proudly at the pun.

Sonic shook his head with a grin and picked her up again, letting her and Pretzel get comfortable before he blasted out of the restaurant, nearly ran into a wall, and then continued down the street.

"I should bring you along more often, Blue," Rouge chuckled, pulling out a watermelon-colored jewel.

The stone winked in the sunlight, and midnights spent with Tails, pouring over books of gems, resurfaced in Sonic's mind. Tourmaline. Not _necessarily_ valuable, but this one was cut like a Chaos Emerald and was perhaps even bigger. And with those glittering green and red hues…

Rouge noticed his expression and rolled her eyes. "Running a club isn't cheap, you know."

"Does GUN not pay you?"

"Of course they do!" She protested. "I wouldn't work for them if they didn't!"

Sonic shook his head and accelerated, bursting through the sound barrier like a fish into water. Dust puffed behind him, clouding the city from view as they traveled on to Mazuri.


	11. Livin' in the City

The desert was behind them, replaced with dark green shrubs, limey trees, and dry brown grass. Sonic alternated between the smoother, dustier road and the uneven, less dusty grass. The sun slipped down the sky, slow yet certain, despite the writhing and protesting of the fire in his head. He winced, grimacing at the pain, and kept running.

They made it to a small, dusty town—Baligo, Rouge said—before he made himself stop. The fire burned and lashed, urging him on, but the sun was already behind the horizon, and darkness was close on its heels.

"Need a break?" Rouge asked, her mocking tone failing to mask her surprise.

Sonic pointed at the sky. "When it gets dark—"

She cut him off. "I remember. I saw you last night." She handed him the bag. "Will we be spending the night here?"

Sonic shook his head vigorously. "No, I can get us to Mazuri. It's only… how far?"

Rouge looked at her device and typed in some numbers. "Two hours." She raised her eyebrows at him. "Sure you'll be able?"

"Of course." He grinned, and she shook her head, walking away.

He imagined the pain was less severe this time, but it was hard to tell with the light clamping down on his chest, flaring behind his eyes and screaming in his ears. It writhed and fought to remain, but despite its efforts it was ripped away, tearing up chunks of him with it.

Black.

Cool.

Sonic blinked his eyes open to a bottle of coke in his face. He sat up and grimaced, rubbing his head. Rouge waved the bottle in his face, and he gratefully took it and drank. Lukewarm, but energy was energy. He managed to down a bottle of water and a sandwich despite his body's argument that sleep was more important than eating. Shaking his head vigorously, Sonic stretched his limbs and jogged in place until his brain finally started cooperating.

"Maybe I should just fly," Rouge eyed him doubtfully.

Sonic shook his head. "It would take you days. And we're not waitin' till morning, either." He added, seeing her about to argue further.

"Let's go." Pretzel spoke up from next to Sonic's foot; he couldn't be sure if she was there the entire time or had just appeared.

Rouge shrugged, signaling her relent, and Sonic lifted her up. Pretzel jumped up to join her, and Sonic felt a wash of gratitude that he was traveling with such light friends. He started running. It felt like forever before he breached the sound barrier, but he reached it, and he kept running, and that was good enough.

Stars wheeled overhead and cool, inky sky beckoned him on. Time blurred, his feet carrying him faithfully on as his mind slipped in and out of a sea of fatigue. Light and a voice in his ear caught his attention, and a glittering skyline filled his vision. A city. The light gave the dark sky a ruddy edge. They reflected off and out of glass windows, illuminating packed cars on ever-busy streets.

The smell of gasoline, smog, people hit Sonic like one of the trucks it was coming from, and he faltered. His ears flicked nervously at the noise, his weary brain desperately trying to track every intrusion on his senses.

"We should slow down," Rouge told him. He obediently slowed to a more car-like pace, and Pretzel opened her eyes, taking in the city now that they were moving slowly enough to see it. "That way." Rouge pointed, guiding him down the crowded streets.

Sonic easily outpaced the packed traffic, weaving from paved street to dirty path and back to the street again. Hardly anyone seemed to notice him, too occupied with their own lives and used to the animal-people by this point. Every major city had at least some.

"We're here," Rouge told him, and he set her down, staring up at the building ahead of him. "Your country boy is showing, Blue." She chuckled, pushing him into the hotel. She left him to stand awkwardly in the lounge while she retrieved the keys to their rooms. She handed him one and pointed him down the hall. "Don't cause trouble."

He nodded, half-asleep, and somehow made it to his room.

* * *

Sonic bolted awake at one in the afternoon, scowling at his socks. He was once again stuck in his new form, but he was more immediately concerned with the monstrosities on his feet. They were primarily neon pink and some hideous green-brown color, with lime green, blue, and brown blobs that gave the impression of pizza slices and had the appearance of stickers. Unfortunately, a minute or so of scrabbling at the socks confirmed that they were there to stay. Worse than the revolting color scheme, however, was that they were almost knee-length. And the texture was _awful_. He was just lucky he had fur, not delicate human skin.

"Are you going to eat?" Pretzel asked from the closet, her paws clasping a covered plate.

"Not hungry." Sonic jumped out of bed, pulling on his shoes and doing his best to tuck the socks out of view. Folding them over only made them look tackier, as if _that_ was possible, and he gave up with an aggravated sigh.

Pretzel grinned, showing off her fangs, and he left her to her meal as he threw open the door and tore down the hall. He had to check his speed for fear of tearing up the carpet, then he had to whirl around and run back to ask Pretzel where Rouge was.

"She's getting lunch," Pretzel said around a mouthful of waffle, waving her hand in the general direction of the city. Sonic sighed and ran off again. He ducked his head in all the closest restaurants, until he finally found her in some sort of lounge a short flight from the hotel.

"Ready to go?" She finished her drink and stood, stretching.

"Rouge." Sonic said, his voice dead serious, causing her to glance at him in surprise. " _What_ is _wrong_ with my _socks_."

She flashed her fangs in a smirk. "You soaked them in ocean water. I _am_ expecting you to pay me back." She added, waving a hand at the monstrosities in his shoes. "Now come on, we need to get going." She paid her bill and took to the skies, leaving him gritting his teeth in frustration. He yelped at the pain of unexpected fangs cutting his teeth. This new form was a nuisance.

 _Well,_ he amended, blasting from nought-to-seven-sixty in seven seconds, _it does have its upsides._ He jerked to a stop, missing the hotel by several meters. He ran back at a more reasonable pace.

"We're going!" He declared, throwing his room door open. He was disappointed to find his intended audience gone, the only sign two empty plates. "Pretzel?"

He darted around the room, checking under every piece of furniture and poking his nose into every nook and cranny. He returned to the doorway, scratching his head, and winced as one of his quills poked through his threadbare gloves. Crimson bloomed through the white fabric. Hissing, he tugged off the gloves and grabbed some toilet paper, doing his best to bind the wound. This form's quills were in _all the wrong places_ , he _really_ needed some new gloves…

"Let's go." Pretzel said with no warning. He yelped and shot backwards, slamming into the wall. He started to rub his head but jerked his hand away, no longer confident in putting it anywhere near his quills.

"Where did you come from?" He straightened and grimaced at the scratched up wall.

Pretzel shrugged. "The shadows. You said we're going."

Sonic sighed and stepped out the door. Rouge was waiting outside with her arms crossed and a smirk on her muzzle. "Ready to go?"

"I'm _always_ ready," Sonic insisted.

"What happened to your gloves?" Rouge cocked her head, that _smirk_ still on her face.

"They were past their due date." He waved his hand, the one that _wasn't_ still smarting. "I don't really need 'em, let's just go."

Rouge pulled up the neck of her jacket, and Pretzel coiled around her shoulders. With a nod from the bat, Sonic lifted them up and burst out of the hotel, following Rouge's directions out of the city and to the north.


	12. Fire, Fire, Burning Bright

Once again, cool green became dry brown, and dust clouded around them. In less than half an hour, Sonic, Rouge, and Pretzel were sliding into a circle of huts, round brown buildings with decorated thatch roofs. Unfortunately, they weren't the first ones there.

Light glared off sky blue metal. Pretzel hissed, squeezing her eyes shut and turning her head away. Sonic set Rouge down and she squinted, raising a hand to shade her eyes. "How did _he_ get here so fast?"

The fire rose, roaring with heat, and Sonic felt the blood boiling in his veins. He didn't fight it; this was Eggman, and for once the fire was entirely in the right. This was something to _destroy_.

White fangs flashed in a delighted grin. He tensed, eyes darting over the metal monstrosity. Sunlight winked on the cockpit, guiding his gaze: the weak point. Easy.

Rouge was saying something, hand on her hip and head tilted back to study the robot. He wasn't sure if she was talking to him or to Eggman, and frankly he didn't care.

Sonic attacked.

The robot, or rather its pilot, hadn't anticipated the abrupt burst of speed mid-monologue, and metal legs scurried backwards. Sonic pushed off the ground and curled, hurtling towards the cockpit. He rebounded away from something bright green and definitely not glass, and hissed to himself. Of _course_ Eggman would have a shield.

His foe regained his composure and started moving, racing backwards up a tree. Sonic would have laughed, but he was still miffed about the shield. Growling, he sprinted to the tree. What were such big trees doing here, anyway? Weren't baobabs exclusive to Madagascar?

He was calculating the fastest way to climb the tree when the fire pushed at his mind. _Keep going,_ it urged. _Just run._ He considered it, studied the angle of the tree to the ground, his own speed and how much faster he could go.

 _Alright._

He ran up the tree.

He'd done riskier stunts before, but how dangerous something was had little to do with the _rush_ , the adrenaline that he couldn't help but grin at. Bark fluttered to the ground, broken away by his blurring feet. The fire urged him on. He leaned forward, into the singing wind, and in one smooth bound somersaulted over the top of the tree and onto the… road?

It wasn't worth questioning. He raced towards the robot, dodging smoothly around the explosives it insisted on throwing at him. Who did Eggman think he was dealing with? Metallic jaws slammed shut inches from his face, and he snickered. Amateur.

The green shield flickered, and he took his chance, slamming into the cockpit in a ball of razor-sharp spines. Glass cracked.

Sonic stared at Eggman's face, and the light boiled in his blood at what he saw. Eggman wasn't afraid. Eggman was grinning. Eggman was _enjoying_ this.

The robot skittered on, throwing explosives and futilely trying to bite its pursuer. Sonic kept on its heels, never wavering. _Crack_. _Crack_. _Crack_. The cockpit window was nearly shattered. Eggman furiously worked the controls, sweat beading on his brow, and Sonic smirked at him. The doctor scowled, reaching for a lever. The fire surged, a sudden rage twisting Sonic's expression. Even now, as he was _losing_ , no fear crossed Eggman's face, and once again the light twisted and boiled and burned, furious at his lack of _respect_. Without a moment's hesitation, Eggman jammed his finger on a button.

 _Pain… the lights went out, it was dark… and there was the light, filling, surging, burning, so familiar and so alien… Control… the light was in control..._

The cockpit flew free, the Egg Mobile blasting off once again. The metallic corpse of the robot tumbled down to the ground. Its pursuer leapt after it, wings spreading gracefully as it glided down.

"Nice work, Blue," Rouge called, nonchalant and smooth as always. Yet she didn't move toward him, keeping to the shadows. Wary. _Guilty._ Sonic shook his head vigorously, trying to get rid of the thought. Rouge was his friend. He didn't care if she was a criminal or if her light was dim, she was his—

Darkness. His eyes fastened on the creature crouched beside Rouge, watching him. Cold. _Evil_. It coiled, eyes fastened on its prey. Rouge tensed, but there was no time before it leapt across the clearing, the air hastily rushing out of its way. The bat and the creature dove in opposite directions. It was no issue; the _hedgehog_ may have trouble controlling unfamiliar speed, but _this_ was _natural_. It turned on a dime, claws seizing the spot of darkness. A blot, a mistake, a smudge to be erased. Sizzling greeted its ears as the creature hissed and writhed in its burning grip.

" _Sonic_! What are you _doing_?" Rouge demanded from a safe height, pulling something from her belt.

It opened its wings and took off, a bright blue arrow shooting towards Rouge. She flung her hand out, and something pink and silver met him midflight. A soundless explosion threw the light to the ground. Fine. The bat didn't matter. It landed on its feet and tightened its grip on the creature. All the dark would burn. The shadows could not face the sun—

It whipped around just as a blur of color slammed into it, something sharp and hard hitting it dangerously near the eye. Once again it caught itself on its feet, whirling to face its adversary. Gone. Where—

That sharp thing slammed into its head again, and this time it braced against the pain and grabbed the object, pulling it and its wielder over its head. Its eyes widened in surprise. This one… was _bright._ Brighter than any of the others it had seen so far. She glowed like a flame— wait, that was actual fire.

She stood, panting, before him, a violet cat crouched with the flames building in her hands. Her yellow eyes were narrowed, keen and with a fury to match its own. She yowled, raising her hands and with them, a wall of fire.

It lunged into the flames with a grin, delighted to finally face a challenge. This would be _fun_.

* * *

A blur of violet heat slammed into the-thing-that-wasn't-quite-Sonic. Pretzel froze as her captor spun to face its attacker. It opened its claws to fight back, and Pretzel took off, racing across the clearing as fast as her wings would take her. She pressed into the shadows, keeping her eyes on the fight.

Sky blue and dawn violet danced around each other. Light and fire flared and clashed, white against red. Pretzel pulled the shadows further over herself, looking around for an escape. Her eyes fastened on an inky grey blot, strangely familiar.

"...out of control," the smooth, cool voice of the black hedgehog, speaking to a silver device on his wrist. "I am not sure what he may do next. What are my orders?" He was crouched on one of the huts, red eyes following the fight but otherwise perfectly still.

Pretzel oozed over the edge of the hut and into the hedgehog's shadow. His glow was a different shade of grey than the bat, darker and more ruddy. His fur was black with red stripes, fitting his aura. Aside from the darkness, he seemed far more… contained than Sonic.

"This new menace is too big a threat. Incapacitate him, kill him if you must." A sharp voice ordered over the device.

"What?" The hedgehog's eyes widened. "What about the plan—"

The voice barely hesitated. "He is not necessary. You are as adept with the Chaos Emeralds as he is, if not more. If you cannot capture him, kill him."

The black hedgehog stared silently down at the battle.

"Agent Shadow? Do you understand your orders?"

The black hedgehog's mouth curled, revealing pointed fangs. The containment cracked, and out of it leaked the same wild, reckless energy that made up Sonic's being. "I understand." He ripped the device off his wrist and carelessly tossed it over his shoulder. Pretzel scurried back as the hedgehog leaped off the roof, his ear not even flicking at the shouts coming from the device.

Pretzel crept to the edge of the roof. Her eyes followed the black hedgehog as he raced across the clearing, skating on the air. Dark red fire burst from his shoes, driving him on through the flurrying dust. It matched his eyes.

There was no hesitation as he joined the fray, golden and white flames warping away from him. His movements were smooth and controlled, masking a wild, chaotic speed that showed only in his dancing eyes and the forceful lunge of his hand. Ice cut through the flames, and the black hedgehog pushed the two forces apart.

"Stop."


	13. The Gang's All Here

The two combatants snarled at each other, barely held back by Shadow's arms. The-thing-that-wasn't-quite-Sonic—it really needed a nickname—hissed and scratched at the black hedgehog. Opposite it, a lavender feline's yellow eyes narrowed dangerously.

The black hedgehog frowned at the blue. "Control yourself, Sonic."

Pretzel half-expected the creature to laugh evilly and claim Sonic wasn't home—or something along those lines—but instead it just blinked. Lime green eyes darted uneasily from the cat to the hedgehog and back to the cat.

"Sonic?" The cat took a step back, the fury slipping from her face to be replaced by confusion.

The creature blinked rapidly, hands opening and closing like it wasn't sure whether to slit their throats or choke them to death (okay, perhaps she was projecting). It hissed, wincing and squenching its eyelids shut. After a moment its eyes opened— _his_ eyes, with pupils and everything. The black hedgehog nodded and stepped back, satisfied.

"Hey Blaze, Shadow," Sonic nodded unsteadily to the cat and the hedgehog in turn.

"Hello, Sonic." The cat—Blaze—tried to cover her confusion with a frown, her tail coiled warily around her legs. "What was that about?"

"Uh…" Sonic glanced off to the side, ears twitching uncomfortably. His gaze caught on Pretzel and quickly flicked away. "I'm… not really sure myself."

"He is possessed by Light Gaia." The hedgehog—Shadow—provided helpfully. He didn't seem to notice Sonic glaring.

"Light Gaia?" Blaze repeated.

"It is an ancient entity made of energy which—" Shadow started, but Sonic cut in with forced cheerfulness.

"What're you doing here, Blaze? I mean, I'm always happy to see you, but it's not often you drop in."

"The Sol Emeralds brought me here. I am unsure why." She adjusted her necklace self-consciously, scowling. "And now they've scattered to the winds. I was hoping they might have been drawn to this temple." She nodded to the massive building, the faded brown stone blending with the dusty ground.

"Well, your timing is impeccable, as always," Sonic grinned. "What about you, Shads? You here by coincidence or—"

"I was following you." Shadow answered without hesitation. "G.U.N. believes you are a threat."

Sonic blinked. "Uh… okay."

Leathery flapping drew Pretzel's attention, and she watched as the bat—Rouge, wasn't it?—joined the group, apparently confident Sonic was under control.

"Why the intervention, then?"Her smooth voice was unusually curt as she turned to Shadow. "Why not let her—" She jerked a thumb at Blaze, who stared at it as if it had personally insulted her. "—take care of the problem for you?"

"It is not _my_ problem," Shadow pointed out. "It seemed like a… waste."

"Wow, I didn't know you cared so much," Sonic said dryly, and was ignored.

"Not like you to disobey orders," Rouge muttered. Before Shadow could retort, she spun around to face Pretzel. "Planning on joining us anytime soon, hon?"

Pretzel dug her claws into the thatch, slitting her eyes against the light. "No."

"C'mon, Pretzel!" Sonic encouraged, waving energetically, all thoughts of murder _apparently_ forgotten. "You need to make friends!"

Pretzel considered, studying the group. Two grays and two lights, and the cat didn't seem inclined towards Light Gaia. It would be helpful to know more people who wouldn't turn psychotic at the drop of a hat. Or… they _probably_ wouldn't…

Pretzel jumped off the building and glided to join them, landing beside the black hedgehog, to everyone's surprise. "Fine." She folded her wings around herself. If only it would stop being so _hot_ … and _bright…_

"Alright, introductions!" Sonic beamed while everyone glanced warily at each other. "Blaze, this is Shadow. He's fast and edgy."

"I'm _what_?" Shadow's ears sprung forward at the last comment.

"Shadow, this is Blaze. She's fast and shy."

"I am _not_!" Blaze protested, baring her teeth at Sonic's cheeky grin.

"Rouge, this is… wait, you guys know each other." He squinted, mumbling to himself as he pointed to each of them in turn as he tried to figure out who knew who. "Geez, it's hard keeping track of you guys," he grumbled, quiet enough that Pretzel had to prick her ears to hear him.

"Rouge the Bat." Rouge offered her hand to Blaze, who hesitantly shook it. "Professional spy and world-famous thief." She flashed her fangs in a dazzling smile.

Blaze quickly dropped her hand, forcing a smile as her fingers twitched uneasily. " …Blaze the Cat. Guardian of the Sol Emeralds and Princess of the Isles." Rouge's eyes narrowed at the titles, but she didn't comment.

"Great! That's everyone!" Sonic clapped his hands, making everyone but Shadow jump. "Now let's—"

"Forgetting someone?" Rouge raised an eyebrow, nodding at Pretzel.

"Oh yeah," Sonic looked at Pretzel like he'd forgotten she existed. "Eh, sorry about that, Pretzel."

"That's my name," Pretzel told them all curtly before she took off, flying for the shade of the temple.

"Hey!" Sonic yelled, charging after her. Blaze yelped and jumped aside as he boosted across the clearing, blue energy bending the air around him. She chased after him, fire creating a similar effect. Rouge didn't spare Shadow a glance as she shot into the air, leaving him to skate leisurely after them.

Pretzel scowled and hunched her shoulders as the group joined her. She doubted Sonic knew the meaning of "personal space".

"This," Sonic declared, gesturing grandly at Pretzel, who sank further into the shadows with a pout. "Is Pretzel!"

"What is she?" Blaze asked, ears pricked curiously.

"Well—" Sonic started to say, brow furrowing, but Rouge interrupted.

"We don't know what she is, and she claims she doesn't know either," Rouge shrugged.

"She doesn't know?" Blaze's brow wrinkled. "How could she not know?"

"She says she has memory loss. You'd know a thing or two about that, wouldn't you, Shadow?" She raised her voice, looking pointedly at the hedgehog.

He hmphed and turned away, frowning.

"Edgy," Sonic whispered, and Shadow whipped around to stare at him.

"It's a strange situation, alright," Rouge continued, looking at Pretzel with a faux-sympathetic expression. "She wakes up the same time as Light Gaia, with mysterious powers and no memory. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

Blaze's eyes narrowed. "That is… convenient."

Pretzel scowled at them, flicking her tail petulantly.

"Are you sure you do not remember anything?" The cat stepped towards Pretzel, tail swinging slowly, like the pendulum on a clock. Rouge stood beside her, arms crossed. Pretzel was effectively cornered, and Sonic was too busy explaining what "edgy" meant to Shadow to be of any help. Not that she was sure he _would_ help her, but he had proved good at derailing conversations in the past.

"I'm sure." Pretzel glared at her interrogators.

"Not a name?" Rouge raised her brows. "Nothing at all?"

"Nothing," Pretzel insisted, flexing her claws on the stone.

"Really? You seem rather comfortable in this world for someone who knows _nothing_ ," Rouge cocked her head to the side, an oddly menacing gesture. Then again, at Pretzel's current size, any gesture seemed menacing. _Current size…?_

"Surely you must know _something_ ," Blaze insisted, the tip of her shoe dangerously close to Pretzel's personal bubble. "If you awoke at the same time as this 'Light Gaia'…"

"I don't remember!" Pretzel flared her wings, baring her fangs. Rouge opened her mouth to counter, but was abruptly shoved into the wall. She yelped, grabbing her singed arm.

Sonic unceremoniously picked up Pretzel— _the touch burned why would it burn_ —and set her on Shadow's head. "Cut it out." He frowned at Blaze and Rouge in turn.

"Aren't you a little curious?" Rouge brushed a hand over her singed fur and winced.

"It _is_ suspicious—" Blaze started, but Sonic shushed her.

"Don't wanna hear it. Until proved otherwise, Pretzel is our _friend_ , and we do not interrogate _friends_ ," he stressed the word, staring hard at Blaze, and she frowned and looked away. He whipped around to point at Rouge. "And _you_ should know better than to question convenient amnesia."

Rouge huffed. "Fine, but don't blame me when she stabs you in the back."

"That would be inefficient." Both Shadow and Pretzel said at the same time.

Sonic glared at both of them before sighing and shaking his head. "Let's get a move on." He skipped into the temple, smile returning with unnatural speed. Shadow kept pace with him, muttering something about "edgy" under his breath, and Blaze darted after them. Rouge trailed behind, sulking, but was soon distracted by the intricate carvings on the walls.

Turning back to the front again, Pretzel studied Sonic. He was cheerful and chipper once more, no sign of the frustration he'd shown outside. _And no sign of wanting to kill me._ He was annoyingly—and frighteningly—inconsistent.

"Pretzel?" Several long minutes later, a soft voice from beside her (or beside Shadow, anyway) made Pretzel jerk her head around. Blaze was walking beside Shadow, ears turned back as she chewed her lip uncomfortably. "I… am sorry for making you… uncomfortable."

After a moment of staring hard at the increasingly uncomfortable cat princess, Pretzel shrugged. "You didn't do anything wrong." She lay down on Shadow's head, eyes trailing lazily over the carvings.

"Actually," Sonic butted in, and Pretzel looked over to him as he walked back to join Blaze. "She was _rude_." Blaze blinked at him, and he smiled impudently. "Buuut that's not so unusual."

"What!?" Blaze bristled. "What do you mean by that!?"

Sonic shrugged, walking backwards away from her. "You're rude, s'all."

"Why you…!" Sonic started running, and Blaze took off after him, the pair blasting through the temple like twin rockets. Pretzel could have sworn she heard Shadow chuckle quietly.

* * *

To Sonic's credit, Blaze only caught up with him because of the wall. He was ninety-percent sure he'd have stayed ahead of her indefinitely if there were absolutely no obstacles in his way, but this was a _temple_ , and far be it from an ancient architect to make a straight hallway.

He slammed into a wall at Mach 2 and was pleasantly surprised when he didn't lose consciousness. A few seconds later and the pleasantness drained from the surprise as his skull began to pound.

"Are you alright?" Blaze offered a hand, and he gratefully took it. The light jolted in him at the contact, and he wrinkled his brow, trying to ignore it.

"I'll live," he smiled at her, then sneezed at the dust. "I'm more worried about the wall." He glanced back at it, confirming that the ancient, beautiful, delicately carved temple wall was now marred by a long, jagged crack and a hedgehog-shaped dent.

Blaze wrinkled her nose. "You should be more careful."

He laughed. "Sometimes I forget how little you know me."

Her ears flicked back towards the sound of footsteps, the rest of the group still far behind. Sonic's large ears picked up their approach effortlessly. Blaze's eyes followed the motion, and she started walking around him, studying his new form.

"How did this happen?" She asked, looking at his face again.

He crossed his arms, tilting his head back as he tried to remember. The memory was foggy in his head, clouded with white light and obscured by harsh contrast, like a poorly edited photo. "Eggman… I think he trapped me in some kinda machine. It used the Chaos Emeralds—" he shuddered involuntarily as he remembered the beacons going out, but he pushed past the unsteady feeling. "—to awaken this thing, Light Gaia. And it transformed me somehow. I dunno." He shrugged, suddenly aware of the odd… wings? …rising slightly with the motion.

"Light Gaia…" Blaze murmured. "Is that what was controlling you out there?"

Sonic looked away, shifting his arms and shuffling his feet. "I… uh… yeah. I guess it was, huh?" He forced a chuckle.

"Can it control you again?" Blaze moved to catch his gaze again, yellow eyes sharp and clear and impossible to avoid.

"Of course not!" Sonic pushed a grin onto his face, puffing out his chest. "Don't sweat it, I've got everything under control!" He gave her a cocky thumbs up.

Blaze's eyes narrowed to slits, a slight growl in her voice. "Sonic…" She started, but was interrupted by the arrival of their companions.

"Sorry to break it up," Rouge smirked, pushing between them, and Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. "But we _are_ here for a reason." She glanced at Sonic as Shadow skated up beside them, Pretzel apparently asleep on his head. "Should we be worried about you losing it again?"

"I can handle—" Sonic started to assure her, but stopped as he felt Blaze's glare burning into his skull.

 _Carrying the entire world on your shoulders?_

 _Listen, don't bite off more than you can chew._

He groaned softly. He should have known one of his teamwork speeches would come back to bite him someday. "I can handle _most things_." He finished weakly. "But… Light Gaia's presence is pretty strong here… so…"

"I will stand guard over him." Shadow jumped in, voice clipped and cool. "And immobilize him if he acts suspiciously."

"That's the Shadow I know," Rouge muttered before placing her hands on her hips, raising her voice. "We'll cover more ground if we split up. I'll go that way—" she pointed down a dim hallway. "Princess can go that way—" she gestured in the opposite direction. "And the rest of you can sort yourselves out." She took off without waiting for an agreement.

Sonic started forward, and Shadow kept pace beside him, watching him like a hawk. Sonic sighed. "Shads, could you give me a little space?"

"My _name_ is _Shadow_ , and no, I cannot. Light Gaia could take over you at any minute. I need to be prepared."

Sonic raised an eye ridge. "So are you going to kill me if I move weird or somethin'?"

"Why would I do that?" Shadow frowned. "That seems unnecessary."

Sonic laughed. "Right, right." He deepened his voice, apparently imitating Shadow. "'You're still of use to me. I'll kill you later, when you're least expecting it and it's most painful.'"

Shadow's frown deepened. "I don't sound like that." He hesitated and then stepped aside, giving Sonic more space. "I… am sorry if I gave that impression."

Sonic blinked at him, taken aback. "Really?"

Shadow glared at him, spines raising. " _Yes_ , really."

"Okay, okay!" Sonic raised his hands, stepping back in submission. As Shadow's quills smoothed, Sonic suddenly remembered something. "Hey, where's Pretzel?"

The two hedgehogs looked around, Shadow lighting the hallway with the green glow of Chaos energy from his fist _(Chaos energy? He's still connected to the Chaos emeralds? Then why…?)_ There was no sign of the little creature.

"Guess she's flying solo," Sonic shrugged, trying to ignore the niggling guilt. "C"mon, I'll race ya!" He took off down the hall without any further warning. Behind him he heard Shadow shout something and the hum of his hoverskates activating. Sonic grinned and leaned forward. This would be fun.


	14. Splitting the Party

"I will stand guard over him."

Pretzel grimaced and slid off Shadow's head, thumping softly into the shadows. She hunched her shoulders, keeping an eye on Sonic as Rouge gave orders. She still felt like claws were grabbing her chest, burning and squeezing and tearing. She ignored the feeling, focused on reality, on what she could see. He _seemed_ to be relaxed enough. Perhaps the darkness of the temple had a soothing effect, or being away from direct sunlight weakened Light Gaia's control? For all she knew, he was waiting till his friends dropped their guards. Wouldn't be much of a wait, from what she'd observed. Better safe than sorry, she decided, flattening herself to the ground. At least the bat would be predictable.

Speaking of which, her eye caught on a flickering of Rouge's aura. She frowned and focused on the bat. There was something in her movements, some sort of energy in the way her wings fluttered… Excitement, Pretzel guessed. What did she have to be excited about, exploring a dusty old temple?

Well, gave Pretzel something interesting to do, at least.

The temple darkened as Sonic left, taking his painful white light with him. Pretzel pricked her ears, listening to the quieting echoes of his argument with Shadow. The feeling of claws grabbing her chest lessened.

Pretzel scurried down the tunnel Rouge had taken, ears twisting to catch every echo. Her eyes caught a glimpse of white fur, and she ducked into the darkness, keeping her gaze on the bat.

Rouge checked her surroundings with smooth ease—no trace of guilt or secrecy and yet there was that _flicker_ in her aura—before focusing on a massive closed door. A stylized sun had been engraved in the stone. Rouge ran her hands over the door, her motions slow and practiced. Pretzel nearly jumped as the bat suddenly yanked on the door, but it didn't budge. Rouge huffed and pulled something from her belt. Kneeling down, she started prodding around the edges of the door, muttering to herself.

After a few minutes of this, she stopped, looking around with a frown. Pretzel held herself frozen, ready to bolt. Rouge shrugged and turned back to the door. After a moment, Pretzel crept closer to her, trying to see what she was doing.

"What are you doing?" Rouge demanded suddenly, sending Pretzel lunging into the air.

"I could ask you the same question," Pretzel's claws met the wall and she clung to it like a lizard, folding her wings around herself.

"You could," Rouge agreed, the accusation leaving her voice as her smooth tone reasserted itself. Pretzel would have preferred if she stayed angry. "But I did ask first."

"You were acting suspicious."

"Says the girl who showed up right as this crisis started with no memories." Pretzel hissed, and Rouge smirked. "Are you even a girl, really? I've never seen a species like you." She moved closer, and Pretzel arched her back, baring her teeth.

Heels clicked on stone, and they both whipped around to see the cat—Blaze—walking swiftly toward them. She kept her back straight and her gaze up, her dark purple coat flapping softly with her strides. Flame licked around her, a brilliant aura that burned red on the edges.

"Highness," Rouge greeted sarcastically.

"My name is Blaze," The cat told her flatly. Her tail waved slowly as she glanced at Pretzel. Despite her glow, she seemed only slightly hostile, and even that wasn't specific to Pretzel.

Rouge smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Of course, Princess. I thought we agreed to split up, or did I miss something?"

"You said you were a thief and a spy," Blaze's yellow eyes held Rouge's. Neither wavered.

"I _am_ a thief," Rouge corrected. "Present tense."

Blaze grimaced but pressed on. "I know it hasn't been long since they were lost, but I hoped… I _wondered_ if you had heard of any… emeralds?"

"You're gonna have to be more specific, honey," Rouge placed a hand on her hip.

"LIke the Chaos Emeralds, they would have very high energy levels and… unusual properties," Blaze explained, tail lashing. Anxiety, Pretzel recognized. "There are seven of them. They are called the Sol Emeralds, though I am not sure many would know their names."

Rouge shook her head with an apologetic expression. Pretzel couldn't decide if it was authentic or not, but some tension had left her posture and the guarded hostility was gone from her eyes. "Haven't heard of them, but I'll keep you posted." Her wings twitched, and Pretzel's ears pointed forward attentively.

"Are you sure?" Blaze took a step forward, eyes burning earnestly. "You don't know anything about where they might be?"

"Not a thing," Rouge said, and this time Pretzel was sure of it, a dark flicker in her aura.

"You're lying." Too late did she realize she'd said it out loud. Her own calm, certain voice, echoing off the walls, made her start.

Blaze and Rouge started at her.

"How do you know?" Blaze asked, tail lashing more frantically then ever, her aura leaping and lashing yet desperately trying to contain itself. Before Pretzel could answer, the cat whirled on Rouge, and the bat stepped back in alarm. The tension was back with a vengeance, and Pretzel realized at least some of that fire was real and physical and could burn them really and physically. "What do you know about the Sol Emeralds?" Blaze growled, her voice still shockingly cold. A fang gleamed red in the firelight.

"Alright, alright!" Rouge threw up her hands, wings fluttering restlessly. Her shadow danced on the wall. Despite everything, her voice was still even. "I may have heard something about one in Shamar. I didn't want to get your hopes up."

Pretzel's eyes were fastened on the burning flame, and too late she glanced over to check Rouge's aura. With the twisting shadows, she could hardly tell what was there and what wasn't.

Blaze stepped forward, and the flame in her hand calmed and cast a far more even glow. "I hope you're telling the truth. Assuming you are…" She looked at both of them, the fire in her eyes soothed to more of a campfire. "Thank you."

Rouge smiled, and her voice was warm despite the tension in her wings and guardedness in her gaze."Happy to help, your highness."

Blaze narrowed her eyes, but before she could respond voices echoed loudly down the hall. One voice, especially.

"I told you, I searched the whole temple!" Glaring white light eclipsed Blaze's darker flames, and Pretzel dropped to the base of the wall, pressing into what shadows she could find. She squinted, blinking as white spots danced on her vision.

Footsteps scuffed on stone. She recognized the squeak of Sonic's sneakers and the relaxed energy of his steps. The metallic click and measured pace were less familiar, but she knew they belonged to Shadow.

"You left for less than three minutes, how thorough could it have been?" Shadow questioned, his cold tone edged with irritation.

"Just because you're too slow—" Sonic started to argue, but broke off as he caught sight of the others and bounced over to join them. "Hey, guys! I heard you getting along better!"

"Surprised you heard anything," Pretzel muttered, flicking her tail.

"We're good at multitasking," Sonic shrugged.

"Rouge has told me of a lead on the Sol Emeralds," Blaze informed him.

"Really?" Sonic's ears sprang forward in surprise. "Awesome!"

While Sonic and Blaze talked, Shadow stepped towards Rouge, his voice low. Pretzel stalked closer, both to escape Sonic and Blaze's combined light and to eavesdrop. "I'm surprised you told her. I would have thought—"

"It's not important," Rouge waved her hand and turned towards Sonic and Rouge. Shadow's quills raised slightly, almost imperceptibly, and his eyes narrowed. He folded his arms and turned away from them all, studying the door.

"Have you found a way to open this?" He asked without turning.

When Rouge didn't answer, Sonic nudged her, and she sighed. "No. I tried, but the only way we're getting in is—"

Shadow raised his hand. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Green energy flashed, and for a moment Shadow's aura lit and writhed and sparked. Then it faded back to dark red, and the door lay in ruins.

"I thought you needed a Chaos emerald to do that," Sonic observed, stepping over the rubble. His sneakers crunched on rock.

Shadow shook his head. "For full teleportation, yes. But I can still access their energies enough for a spear."

A strange look passed over Sonic's face, and he moved away, poking at the rubble with unusual quiet.

"What _is_ this?" Rouge's voice echoed from across the room, where she was investigating twelve doors. Six stood boldly, with bright symbols carved into them. The other six had deep scratches across the symbols, partially obscuring their meaning. Blaze walked over to join her, running a reverent hand over a door emblazoned with a sun setting behind a glacier.

"They have an energy similar to Chaos control," Shadow said, and they all nodded as if _that_ made any sense.

Sonic tapped something on the wall. "Rouge, you have any idea what this means?"

The bat joined him, tilting her head as she studied the writing. "I'm not sure, but the pictures are pretty clear."

Sonic coughed, his tail curling with embarrassment. "Oh, yeah, I guess that would be simpler."

Rouge chuckled. "They seem to suggest these are doors to other places." She traced over the drawings, which showed a savannah and an open door. Through the door was an arctic wasteland. "Far away places."

"How do we activate them?" Sonic asked, touching the door with the glacier on it. Immediately the carvings on the doors lit up, glowing with an eager white light that matched Sonic's aura. Pretzel hissed and backed away, raising her wings. Blaze and Rouge both glanced at her with sympathetic expressions.

"Like that, it seems," Rouge pushed on the door lightly, and cold wind hissed through the crack.

"A constant Chaos control," Shadow marveled, moving to get a closer look at the door. He brushed against Rouge, and they both jerked away from each other, scowling.

"What's the plan, Blue?" Rouge pointedly turned her back on Shadow.

"I think we should—" Sonic paused for a brief second, eyes jumping between Shadow, facing the door with his arms crossed, and Rouge, still keeping her back to him. "Maybe we should split up? With these gates, we could spread out across the planet easily."

"Good idea, blue," Rouge moved to the center of the group, and Shadow reluctantly half-turned to face her. "Conveniently, I have a lead for each of us."

" _How?"_ Pretzel demanded, and was ignored.

"I'll go to Adabat, Shadow will go to Empire City, and Sonic can head to Holoska." She looked at the doors again. "I'd guess there's one for each major continent."

"So is this the South Pole?" Sonic pushed the glacier door all the way open, and snow blasted into the room. Pretzel leaned into the cold gust, a welcome relief from the stifling warmth of the temple. She hadn't realized just how much she hated this place until now.

Rouge stepped carefully into the doorway, pulling a device from her belt. She leaned out into the cold, wrapping her wings around her as a protective barrier, and squinted at the screen. "Actually… this is closer to the North Pole!" She shouted over the wind.

"Which continent would that be?" Sonic yelled, joining Rouge as she pushed against the door.

The door shut with a slam and a final hiss of ice. The room seemed painfully stifling with its closing, buried underground without the coolness of the night, choking in the heat and firelight. Pretzel dug her claws into the ground. _Not underground. Not trapped. Not buried. Not for long._

Rouge's voice dragged Pretzel's mind back to the present. "Technically? North America. It's an island, Greenland; their culture is more European." Rouge brushed the snow off her gloves and studied the other doors. "Which doesn't much support my theory."

Blaze stepped up to a door with a desert sun and pushed it open. A hot breeze swirled through the room. Rouge joined her, poking out the device. "Saudi Arabia. That's in Asia." Sonic pushed open a gate engraved with coastal scene. "Italy. Europe." The hedgehog darted over to a portal showing a stilt hut over water. "Indonesia. Asia again. And Oceania, technically." Blaze opened a door and hissed at a blast of noise. Rouge peered out and smirked. "Empire City. That's two for North America."

Sonic and Blaze raced for the final door. He won and stuck out his tongue at her. She scowled and turned away. The door showed an elegant temple and a rising red sun; when Rouge opened it, they were greeted by a blast of noise, but with a different flavor than Empire City.

"China. That's the third for Asia." Rouge stepped back to take in all the doors, putting her hands on her hips. "Empire City, Adabat, Spagonia, Shamar, Mazuri, Holoska, Chun-Nan. North America, Asia, Europe, Asia, North America, Asia."

"Maybe whoever made this really likes Asia?" Sonic suggested.

"What about the other doors?" Shadow asked, and without waiting for an answer, he pushed at one of the scratched doors. Beyond it lay nothing but bright, empty space.

"Weird…" Sonic muttered, waving his hand in the void.

"Stand back," Shadow told him. The blue hedgehog obliged, and Shadow laid a hand on the door frame. His aura once again crackled with green energy. "Chaos control." He muttered, and for just a moment a beautiful white city blinked into view and then was gone again. Shadow stumbled, gasping from the exertion. Rouge moved as if to support him, but stopped herself and turned away, folding her arms.

"That was Apotos," Sonic muttered, staring into the void. "I was there not long ago… Right after this whole mess started, actually."

"That's a pretty big coincidence," Rouge cocked her head to one side, considering the door.

Blaze traced a hand over the scratches on the door. "These marks… What could have made them?"

"A really big cat?" Sonic joked.

Without speaking, Blaze unsheathed her claws and sliced them down the door frame. Everyone moved closer to compare the marks.

"Not a cat," Sonic acquiesced.

Blaze looked around and gestured at Pretzel. "Do you have claws?"

Pretzel blinked, taking a moment to realize Blaze was actually talking _to_ her. She scuttled across the room and slashed her talons down the wood. She hissed and coiled under her wings as everyone leaned dangerously near her to study the marks.

"Similar," Blaze murmured. "Some sort of bird, I think."

Hot fear hissed in Pretzel's ear, coiling around her heart. Again she felt the claws clutching her chest, but now they were bigger, hotter, brighter, sharper. Not claws. Talons.

"Well, that's ominous," Sonic muttered. "Should we use the gates to get to where we're going?"

"I don't see why not," Rouge shrugged. "And in the latest of this string of coincidences, there's a gate for each location I suggested." She glanced at Blaze. "And one for you, too, princess." She nodded at the door with the desert sun.

Blaze blinked and slowly walked over to it. She pushed it open again, and the hot wind eagerly leapt around them, like a dog whose master had come back after being gone for five minutes.

"Shamar," Rouge reminded her. "No reason for drawn out goodbyes. Let's see what we can find, and we can meet in Empire City. _That_ should make my supervisors happy," she added in a mutter.

Shadow nodded and, without a word, stepped through the door into Empire City. It slammed shut behind him with a bright flash. Rouge rolled her eyes.

Rouge pushed open the door with the stilt hut. She winked at the remainders of the group. "Good luck!" And with that she was gone.

"Well, good luck finding the Sol Emeralds, Blaze!" Sonic stepped towards the glacier door.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Blaze raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah!" Sonic spun around. "You coming with me, Pretzel?"

For just a moment, Pretzel entertained the notion of chasing after Shadow, who was at least quiet, or Rouge, who she could kind of understand, or even following Blaze, who seemed to think Pretzel was a person (though then she remembered where Blaze was going and immediately dismissed the notion). But no. The others were _easier_ , yes, easier to understand without the blinding auras and strange mind control, but Sonic was the one who had promised to help, Sonic was the one who got things moving, and for all his unpredictability… he was the first. The first one who saw her. That counted for something.

Plus, he was going to the cold place.

"You promised to help me find my memories," Pretzel fluttered over to join him, leaning towards the door with anticipation of the cold wind. "I'm not letting you get away that easily."

Sonic chuckled. "Alright then. See ya, Blaze!" He waved and pushed through the door. Pretzel jumped in after him, and they were consumed by swirling white.


	15. The Edge

Apologies for the late update. I put this chapter up on DeviantArt, but somehow forgot the other sites… and then I didn't update at all last week. Sorry guys!

* * *

Cold wind wrapped around them, but Sonic hardly felt it. Which was odd. He'd _been_ to Greenland, normally it was colder than this. He swished his tail, watching as it smoothed the snow. Maybe it was the transformation. That made sense. He shrugged off the niggling concern and started running.

He moved quickly, but not so quick that Pretzel couldn't keep up. And, he admitted, if he went too fast, he had a feeling he'd slide all the way to the ocean. Sonic shuddered and nearly slipped. His tail lashed, keeping his balance, and he grinned. The thing was actually useful. Who knew.

"How will we get back?" Pretzel's voice came as cold and clear as the howling gusts.

Sonic skidded to a stop. Or he _tried_ to stop, yelping as the ice carried him several more feet then he intended. He dug in his heels and turned around, blinking in the whirling snow. No sign of the gate. He sprinted back a little ways. Still no gate, and now he didn't even know which way he had been going.

"...huh."

Pretzel rolled her eyes, but otherwise seemed surprisingly unbothered by being trapped in an icy wasteland. _She's learning,_ Sonic observed with a grin.

Still, regardless of how unbothered they felt, they couldn't stand in the snow all day. Sonic squinted, trying to see through the falling snow. All he saw was white. A memory stirred in his mind at the purity of the snow, and he focused, reaching for the light that had twisted his body. It jumped eagerly to him, delighted that he actually _wanted_ to access it. Sonic wrestled it down; all he wanted was the sight, he didn't want to lose control. Flickers appeared in the distance, gradually at first, and then suddenly his vision flipped and everything was black except for those distant, flickering lights.

He took a moment to adjust and then pointed. "I think there's a settlement over there."

He was careful not to look at Pretzel as he started running, not wanting to see that pure, deep, cold blackness. The light growled restlessly, and he shoved it down. He stumbled in shock when it _went_ , not exactly meek, but not as difficult as it usually was.

He'd told it _no_ and it had _listened_.

The light _wasn't controlling him_.

Exhilaration rushed through him at the thought. He hadn't realized how fully the light filled and twisted him until now, when it was partially hibernating, unable to bend his thoughts to make him believe he _liked_ it, _liked_ being controlled. Sonic's mouth curled. He leaned forward, letting the wind bite at his face and sting his eyes. _He_ was running. _He_ was free.

A distant voice called, and Sonic slowed, letting Pretzel catch up. She didn't say anything. Neither did he. Something was hanging in his throat and catching in his chest, but he didn't know what, wasn't sure what he needed to say. There was nothing to say. Wasn't there? He was pretty sure there wasn't. But there was something… was he forgetting something? Maybe—

Sonic yelped and dug in his heels as a rickety wooden structure loomed out of the swirling white. He grimaced and kicked snow from his shoes before cautiously stepping up to the structure, rapping his knuckles on the wood. "Hello? Anyone here?"

Silence. Stifling, suffocating silence.

Sonic shivered, the first time he had since they arrived. He glanced at Pretzel. She was still unbothered, calmly prodding at the ice, looking for all the world like she was born there. Maybe she was. Sonic smiled, and she glanced up at him suspiciously. The thing he didn't remember poked at the edge of his mind, and he opened his mouth to say something, the words hovering above his tongue… and then crunching footsteps made them both whip around, and the words were lost.

A short human, bundled in fluffy covering after fluffy covering, stared at them. His eyes were wide behind his scarf. "Who are you?" He demanded in heavily accented English. Pretzel rolled her eyes and resumed poking at the ice.

"I'm Sonic, and this is Pretzel," Sonic gestured at his companion. She didn't even look up. Very unhelpful.

The man's eyes darted around warily. "Why are you here?"

Well, if the human was going to skip the pleasantries, so would Sonic. "We're looking for information on Light Gaia. I don't s'pose you guys have some sorta temple?"

The human scrutinized him for a moment. "...yes," he said at last, his tense posture relaxing slightly. Sonic wasn't sure what he'd done to put the man at ease; maybe he'd proved himself sufficiently unbrainwashed? Ice cold shivered down his spine. The light still hibernated in his mind, just waiting for its chance to take command again.

"Where?" Pretzel demanded. It was a bad day indeed when _Sonic_ was the politest person there.

The man pointed. "A few miles that way. It was on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea."

" _Was_?" Sonic echoed.

The man sighed. "It has been warmer, you have noticed?" Neither of them responded, but the man pressed on regardless. "The sun, it has been softening the ice." Pretzel's head jerked up, and her eyes flitted to the ice she'd been prodding. "The temple…" The man made a motion with his hands and an accompanying "sploosh" sound effect.

"It's… _in_ the ocean?" Sonic echoed. As if to punctuate this revelation, the wind stilled. They stood in the eerie white silence, bright blue and warm light breaking through the clouds. The warmth sitting at the bottom of his chest stirred again. An entirely different feeling trickled down his back, like ice melting, becoming water, becoming _ocean…_

The man noticed the change in weather and sighed. "Yes, and our village with it. We have relocated, but even now, we may soon join it." He picked up a pile of wood from the ground and nodded at them. "I must get back to work. Good luck." He shuffled off, boots crunching on snow. Soft, wet snow, not rock-hard ice.

"Maybe I can breathe underwater," Pretzel mused, and Sonic laughed, a harsh, disbelieving sound that grated on his ears.

"Let's go" was all the warning he gave before he burst out onto the snow, legs eating up the white expanse. His red shoes stood out like drops of blood on the snow, and again he felt that odd laugh bubble in his throat. He ignored it.

They reached the cliff sooner than he expected. Maybe Pretzel was moving faster. Maybe his perception of time had become skewed with all this blinding white. Maybe the universe hated him. Wind howled fiercely, and he crouched behind what little buffer there was on the edge of the cliff. Pretzel flattened herself to the ground beside him and wriggled out enough that she could see the ocean. Sonic carefully shuffled after her, painfully aware of how easy it would be to slip.

He looked down, down and down, to the pitch black ocean. No, on second thought it _wasn't_ pitch black. It was deep purples and blues and frothed with white, and somehow the colors made it _worse_. Made it seem _alive_. The waves crashed and clamored, and part of him wanted to laugh and run and race them, and another part wanted to scream and fly and fight them.

"It's beautiful," Pretzel whispered. There was no dryness in her tone, no bitterness, and without the usual sarcasm her voice sounded unusually small and sweet.

As if she heard his thoughts, Pretzel thwacked her tail on the ice and narrowed her eyes, her bite returning. "Over there." She pointed at a ledge somewhere below them. A white igloo clung to it, and hints of more buildings poked out sporadically all the way down the cliff.

"Okay, we got this," Sonic said, but it didn't come out as enthusiastically as he had planned. He scanned the cliff, picking out ledges and dents and crevices he could use to climb down. "Okay, okay, okay…" He had to force himself to stop chanting as he slid his legs over the edge, planting a tennis shoe on a jut of ice.

The wind howled and slammed against him, catching those _stupid useless wing-things_ and trying to tear them off his back. He grit his teeth and slid down so he was on a ledge with the wall at his back. The wind kept him pressed there, pinned like he was part of someone's butterfly collection.

Pretzel joined him easily. For once, the wind was taking someone else's side. Stupid wind. Never liked it anyway.

"I got this," Sonic told himself, wishing his voice didn't catch and squeak like it did. He started to shuffle on the ledge, glimpsed the cold abyss, and gasped as it coiled around his chest, pulling tighter and tighter. He clenched his claws on the icy wall, trying to make himself move. He forced himself a few steps more, just a few steps more, and reached a ledge. He started to go forward. _CRACK_. Sonic lunged back with a cry as the ice tumbled down. His eyes froze on the bits of clear white, watching as they fell and fell and were swallowed by the ocean. He could imagine them all too clearly, black water closing around them, tighter than a strait jacket, suffocating…

"Sonic!" Pretzel shouted, her sharp voice cutting through the blackness. "We need to keep moving!" He couldn't see her, pressed against the wall like he was, but he heard her somewhere around his feet.

Sonic tried, he really did, but his claws were caught and his feet were glued and all he could see was black, black, black water.

" _Please_ don't tell me you're hydrophobic," Pretzel growled, nipping futilely at his ankles.

"Actually," Sonic said, and his voice didn't sound like his. It was high-pitched and fast and full of hysterical laughter. "Normally I'm not! Normally I like the ocean! It's very cool! Really, really, _really_ cool!" The cold pinned him, mocking, and the only warmth was the snake binding tighter and tighter around his racing heart.

The wind died down to a cool slap, but still the pressure on his chest remained. Claws scraped on ice, tiny chunks plummeting, and Sonic's eyes again chased after them before something filled his vision. He jerked his head up again. Pretzel hovered in front of him, wings beating hypnotically, dark against the blinding winter sky.

She fixed her green eyes on his, not meeting his gaze so much as studying it. Her head was tilted to the side, like she was trying to figure out a puzzle. "You're not normally afraid? Why are you afraid now?"

Irritation dragged his eyes back before the ocean could hypnotize him again. "It's not _me_! It's Light Gaia!" He blinked, surprised at the words. But it was his own voice, and they rang true.

A ghost of a smile, ancient and dark, flitted across her face. "You're right. It's not you." She looked down at the heaving sea. "The fear isn't you. Is it your master? Does it control you?"

Sonic took longer to answer than he should have, caught up once more in those white crested waves.

"It's not you," Pretzel snapped, her voice doing an _excellent_ impression of claws raking across his ears. "It doesn't control you. It's an _enemy_ , Sonic. You fight enemies. How do you fight enemies?"

The wind whispered, hissing, dangerous and familiar.

"You don't freeze and you don't hide and you don't give up." Her voices wavers and drops to a whisper, like she's talking to herself. "You can't let it win. You can't let _him_ win. And if it wins, it _will_ win, you keep _fighting_."

Sonic's foot slid along the ice, and his claws unhooked from the wall. The ocean continued to dance, and the coils continued to strangle him, but he ignored them, slipping into that rushing stillness only the wind knows, where feeling is left behind. He moved, calmly, carefully, fighting that hissing snake with every inch.

Pretzel grinned. She started to say something, maybe something encouraging for once, more likely something sarcastic and rude. And then the wind stopped whispering and started shouting, and Sonic's eyes widened as it filled Pretzel's wings like sails. She slammed into the ice. Her eyes widened and then closed. The only sound was an echoing crack. In dead silence, she tumbled, lifeless, into the black water, and was swallowed.


	16. Black Water

Sonic stared into the ocean, chest rising and falling fast, too fast. He could barely breathe, the light coiling and biting and squeezing. Fear. Fear of the dark and the cold and the wet.

He growled and pushed against the light. The motion was mental and physical at once, and he tumbled off the ledge. The terror surged and his vision blacked out for a precious second, and then it receded as it realized it was too late.

The water may as well have been ice. It stung and slammed and he felt like he'd broken something, though past experience taught him that was unlikely. For a moment Sonic paddled with desperate, awkward movements, before forcing himself to take a breath and maybe say a prayer. Sucking in the biting air, he plunged beneath the surface.

Opening his eyes was the hardest part, Sonic discovered. He felt the ocean pressing, black and terrible, and his heart jumped around like a wild thing. But once he forced his eyelids to lift, that was that. He was underwater, and there was no more time for terror. He looked around. Everything was slow and silent and calm.

 _Pretzel._ He jerked himself back to alertness, trying to spin in the water, but only able to flail uselessly. He kicked, trying to right his course, and something glinted out of the corner of his eye. Sunlight winked off that bizarre jewel in Pretzel's crest. It looked like a green eye, reptilian and incredibly creepy, and he could have kissed it with relief.

Thankfully, Pretzel's open wings were slowing her descent, giving Sonic time to swim for the dark, sinking shape. The motions were pure instinct, but he made up for lack of experience with muscles honed for running and willpower honed for the impossible.

He reached out a clawed yellow hand and caught the tip of her tail. It sliced him, red clouding in the water, but he didn't let go, tugging her towards him until he could close his other hand around her long, snaky midsection. Every motion was painfully slow. Speaking of pain, his lungs reminded him that he did, in fact, need to breathe.

The light winked off that jewel again, and he followed it up and up. Bubbles further guided his path. Faintly, he wondered where they came from, and if he could use them to replenish his air supply.

They broke through the surface, the air stinging through his soaked fur and biting away the haze of oxygen deprivation. Gasping, Sonic lifted Pretzel out of the water, kicking with all his might. He couldn't tell if she was breathing.

Arm tiring, Sonic brought her closer to him, holding her head just above the water with one hand as he paddled wildly with the other. Waves and salt—how had he forgotten the ocean was salty it tasted awful and his hand was stinging why did he ever like the ocean—splashed in his eyes. His mind jumped wildly at flecks of foam and bits of ice, assuming everything was a shark or whale coming to devour him. It was a shock when he reached the cliff alive.

Sonic dug his claws into the ice, still coughing salt water. He tried to pull himself up, but one hand wasn't enough, and there was no way he was letting go of Pretzel. He tried to push himself up with his legs, but as he tilted his head back, he saw how high the cliff was, and how the ocean smoothed the ice.

It was no use.

Sonic would have laughed, if he wasn't hacking up water. It would be a stupid way to die, drowning in the ocean with only a spiteful ferret for company, not even in his own body. Alien wings and tail dragged him down, drawn to the dark depths like opposite poles on a magnet. He tried to lift Pretzel up higher, and his other hand slipped off the ice. They tumbled down in what seemed like slow motion. The water closed eagerly around them, like a host hurrying his guests into his house and slamming the door on the world behind them.

 _Sorry,_ Sonic's oxygen deprived mind offered, a chapter too late. _Sorry, Pretzel._

A star fell into the ocean.

The water abruptly rose several degrees in temperature, and Sonic blinked his eyes open with a gasp. Warm water flooded in. A hand wrapped around his middle, and suddenly he was flying upward. He kept his hand tight on Pretzel, claws digging into her thick fur and the slick scales on her underbelly.

Once more the water broke, reluctant to surrender its unwilling guests. The hand tightened on Sonic's middle, and he coughed, and coughed again. He blinked furiously, trying to clear his vision.

"…me?" a voice called distantly. Familiar…

" _Sonic!"_ The voice snapped. " _Wake up!_ " Fire blazed uncomfortably close to his face. Blazed…

"Blaze?" Sonic choked out. His vision finally cleared, and he was greeted with violet fur. He twisted, eyes roving over the churning waves. "Pretzel?" Salt clogged his throat.

"She's here." Something in Blaze's voice made Sonic want to ask more questions, but the ocean lapped and roared, and he decided to let her focus on keeping them alive.

Steam hissed around him, and he yelped as the water burned. A moment later cold air replaced the boiling, and he gasped as his back unceremoniously slammed into ice. He planned to wait a minute or two for the wind to come back to him, but he blacked out instead.

A white gloved hand slapped his face, and he jerked upright. "Where's Pretzel?" He was proud of his ability to prioritize.

Blaze wordlessly placed the creature in his lap. Pretzel lay completely still, her expression the most peaceful he'd ever seen it.

Sonic's face twisted into a tight frown. "We need to give her some warmth."

Not looking for Blaze's response, he tilted Pretzel's head back and opened her mouth. He was about to begin CPR—you couldn't be a hero for long without picking up some first aid training (or you couldn't if you were a decent person who cared about your friends' lives)—when Pretzel's eyes sprang open.

"Are you trained to do that?" She demanded.

"How…" Blaze's eyes were wide. "You weren't breathing for _five minutes_!"

Pretzel frowned.

"That's probably her snake genes," Sonic said with very unjustified confidence. His terror went as quickly as anything about him. Tails said it was a survival method; Sonic laughed and ran off to do something distracting, which kind of proved Tails' point. "I'm more curious about what you're doing here, Blaze. That was a really lucky save." He smiled, and she returned it easily for once.

"I didn't believe Rouge," she admitted. "I didn't feel the Sol Emeralds in Shamar, and I…" she took a deep breath. "I think I should help you. Just until I have an idea of where to look. And I thought my… _skills_ might be useful in a place such as this." The small, orange flame in her hand flickered like a puppy hearing its name.

Sonic beamed at her, delighted to hear her talking positively about her pyrokinetics for once. "Very useful! I couldn't think of a more useful skill!" He dropped the smile with effort. "Sorry about the Sol Emeralds."

She frowned briefly into the middle distance before focusing on him again. "They… will be found when they need to be." She said with reluctance. She frowned down at the ocean. "Perhaps one is here. I do sense a strange light…"

"Yeah, someone said it's been hotter around here recently," Sonic rubbed a finger under his nose thoughtfully. "Maybe a Sol Emerald is doing it?"

Blaze nodded with a doubtful expression.

"How are we going to get to the temple?" Pretzel interjected. She seemed thoroughly unaffected by her experience.

Blaze raised an eyebrow at Sonic, and he pointed into the ocean. "There's a temple down there."

"Ah." Blaze leaned over to peer down. Sonic noticed her claws digging into the ice in an all too familiar gesture, and he surreptitiously brushed his tail against hers. She didn't look at him, but she didn't move away. _Finally, some use for the thing._

Abruptly, Blaze jumped to her feet, backing away from the edge. "I think I see it."

"Can we swim to it?" Sonic asked, trying to ignore how the coils tightened at the suggestion.

"I could," Blaze said cautiously. "You could stay."

"No way," Sonic forced a grin, mentally growling at the alien terror. "We're sticking together from here on out."

"…Very well," Blaze acquiesced after a long moment. She offered her hand, and Sonic gladly took it. She moved to the edge and stopped, glancing back. "Pretzel?"

"I'll keep up," the ferret assured them, and launched off the ledge without pausing to so much as spread her wings.

Sonic laughed. Some of his nerves must of shown through, or maybe it was the height, but either way Blaze tightened her grip on his hand. The warmth was a welcome anchor, pulling him out of the enchanting abyss and memories of sinking down and down not minutes earlier.

"One," Her voice rang out, echoing clear in the cold. "Two." They tensed. "Three!" Blaze leaped off the ledge, tugging him after her, and a shield of fire lit briefly around them as they hit the water. It went out with a hiss, but warmth remained.

Blaze didn't give Sonic a chance to stare into the dark and feel the coils choke him. She tugged him right down without pause, following a smirking Pretzel to the distant, faint shape of elegant, carved stone. Together, they plunged into the depths, into the dark, and into the temple.

* * *

Sorry for the late update(again)! But at least you can check out this awesome fan art by SilverTheCat-Factora on DeviantArt ;): silverthecat-factora/art/Sonic-Leashed-Promotional-Art-758137722


	17. Winter Sun

Sonic burst out of the water and into the air, gasping and flopping on the polished stones like a confused fish. Blaze slid out beside him, wringing out her hair with her hands (which, Sonic noticed, conveniently hid her expression). Pretzel held no such reservations, snickering openly at Sonic's ineptness. He stuck out his tongue at her. She returned the gesture, and Sonic blinked. Her tongue was forked. Figures.

The temple gleamed cool and dark around them, all smooth polished tiles and faint glows of… some kind of algae. Biology was never his strong suit. The glow reflected in Blaze's wide eyes as she got up and turned slowly around, taking in the sight. Sonic smiled and stood to join her. His foot landed on an indented tile, and he felt a sudden churning of fire and light in his gut. Yelping, he stumbled back as white flared in the lines between the tiles.

"What did you _do_?" Pretzel and Blaze demanded almost in sync. Pretzel dove back into the water with an almost silent splash as Blaze backed up to stand back-to-back with Sonic, flames snarling in her hands as the temple lit up before them.

The white glow spread like wildfire through the sky blue tiles and into the carvings on the walls, making elegant mosaics shine like neon billboards. The gleam intensified as it spread, and Sonic got the feeling he should be shielding his eyes or at least wincing, but neither he nor Blaze blinked.

A rumble made him finally jerk his gaze away, just as Pretzel burst out of the water and coiled in a puddle on the floor, wings wrapped around herself and chest heaving jerkily up and down. She looked around, wild eyed, then buried her head in her paws with a hiss.

"What's going on?" Blaze demanded, tail lashing and hands curled into fists. She turned warily in a circle, looking oddly unbalanced.

For once in a blue moon, Sonic seemed the calmest and most levelheaded in the group.

"I must've activated it with my transformation." He gestured at his fur, almost the same bright blue as the tiles, and his wings, a turquoise matching the jeweled accents in the temple.

"' _Activated it'_?" Blaze was looking at him as if _he_ was the one behaving irrationally and getting worked up over a few lights.

"It's rising to the surface," Pretzel growled, her voice dark and rough like… like a cave, maybe? Sonic's was suddenly very aware of the claws on his hands. He stilled their twitching with an effort. His tail started swaying instead.

"Makes our job easier." He shrugged and walked down one of the hallways, avoiding looking at Pretzel. _I'm in control, I'm in control, I'm in control._ It was a lot harder to believe with the light all around him like this. _I'm in control._ Everything was bright and warm and at once fuzzier and sharper in his mind and his vision alike.

He looked back when the others didn't follow. "We're here for a reason, remember, guys? 'Sides, if we're going to sightsee, might as well see the whole thing." He chuckled, feeling vaguely like he made a pun. He also felt like it wasn't worth laughing about, but it made him feel more normal, less like he was slowly drowning _no don't think about that_ , and the part of him that felt it wasn't even a pun was also the part that was too tired to care _._

Blaze and Pretzel exchanged a glance.

"...yes. Of course." Blaze stepped forward cautiously, casting a suspicious glare at the glowing mosaics.

Look at the pictures himself, Sonic mused that her wariness may have something to do with how prominently dogs featured in the images. Because… she was a cat. Cat's didn't like dogs. Obviously.

The part of Sonic that was tired and headachey and just wanted to sleep for a week argued that it was very unlikely Blaze was bothered by something so trivial. The part of Sonic that was energetic and darting from picture to picture and just _so excited_ to be in this awesome, mysterious, _super cool_ temple politely told headachey-Sonic to shut up and go away, he'd get his time to shine at night. Excited-Sonic thought this was a hilarious pun. Headache-Sonic muttered some words he had learned from Shadow and stomped off.

Sonic paused at a fork in the path and realized that having imaginary arguments with himself was maybe not a good thing.

The temple shuddered again. Sonic tapped his foot impatiently, glancing back at Blaze and Pretzel, who were apparently too busy staring at the decor to _move a little faster_. Blaze met his gaze, and he immediately took off down the left path, ignoring her exasperated call.

He slowed when he heard a steady dripping sound. Was the temple… leaking? He took a step forward and grimaced as icy water splashed against his shoes. Ugh. Why did this sunken temple have to be so _wet_? He backed up, narrowing his eyes at the water covering the hallway ahead, calculated the distance, and lunged forward, leaping over the puddle. His quills brushed the ceiling. He landed lightly on the other side, throwing his arms out for flare. Grinning, he turned around and was mildly disappointed to see no one had witnessed his feat.

An odd pattern on the floor ahead caught his eye. It looked like… light. Distorted and dimmed by distance and water, but sunlight nonetheless. But that would have to mean… He tracked the light to its source and grinned. A window. No glass, nothing to keep the water out, and yet the whole place wasn't flooded. Magic, probably. He hesitantly reached a hand out to touch it, and something pushed back, like opposite poles on a magnet. With effort he pushed his hand through and gasped at the icy chill of the water. With a hiss he jerked it back inside.

Magic water window. Cool, but not helpful. He turned to leave.

A shadow flickered on the wall.

Sonic crouched, daring himself to hold still. Restless energy fluttered in his chest, but he held it, coiled. Waiting. Slowly, he turned his gaze back to the window. It had changed. The round shape was no longer filled with the dark blues and violets of the ocean. Instead it was shining yellow, with an inner circle of black. It shifted, showing an outer ring of white, and then it darted away, leaving the dark ocean behind.

An eye.

An eye bigger than his head.

 _Which is saying something,_ some chirpy voice said in the back of his mind as a great, dark shape moved outside the window. And then it wasn't a dark shape, it was radiating light and turning the midnight ocean to a noon sky.

The creature was an eel, Sonic supposed, in the sense he was a hedgehog. Its glowing pattern didn't cover its whole body, instead lighting up strips of the thing's skin in the impression of a skeleton. Or maybe it really _was_ a skeleton. He wouldn't be surprised. The thing was long, impossibly long, and he had yet to see the tip of its tail. Its head was at least the size of a truck and shaped like a fang. Those round yellow eyes moved lazily if at all. Confident. _Smug._ It seemed to sense his gaze and flashed its teeth in something like a smile, fangs shining white before it snapped its jaws shut. The whole thing faded to blend with the ocean again.

Well. If Sonic hadn't been afraid of the ocean before, he was now.

"Hey Blaze!?" Sonic shouted, sprinting back the way he'd come without regard for the water on the floor.

Blaze had evidently picked up the pace, because he ran into her just around the corner. "What is it?" She snapped, tail flicking irritably.

"I don't suppose you have any giant… eel… things in your world?" Sonic shifted from one foot to the other, glancing nervously behind him.

"What do you mean?" Blaze pushed past him without waiting for an answer. She stopped at the window, and Sonic joined her just as the eel lit up again. He heard her sharp intake of breath, but was too focused on the sight himself to look at her.

It was big, and it was glowing, and had he noticed the feathers before? The _sword-shaped, very sharp looking_ feathers that probably _weren't feathers at all_? And oh yeah, it was _definitely_ giving them a smug grin.

"Moray," Pretzel observed, perched _in_ the window because of course she was. "They normally prefer warm water. Odd that one would be here." She cocked her head as if she was observing a particularly interesting insect and not a _giant fish monster snake thing._

Moray. It was a moray.

"Okay." Sonic inhaled deeply. "Okay. A moray, huh? Are those… _aggressive_ or anything?"

"Only if disturbed." Pretzel narrowed her eyes. "Though at that size, it might see us as prey."

"How do you know so much about it?" Blaze asked curiously.

Pretzel shrugged. "Maybe I was a marine biologist?"

" _This is not the time, guys_!" Sonic hissed, and honestly, when did _he_ become the voice of reason here!?

"It's obviously not a normal moray," Pretzel continued, scowling at him. "The fact that it's here at all is weird."

The moray was swimming away, and Sonic allowed himself to breathe.

"So… it was sent by Light Gaia?" Blaze said slowly.

Sonic whipped around to stare at her, eyes widening.

"Probably." Pretzel shrugged as Sonic whirled again to turn his stare on the window.

 _SLAM_

The temple shuddered in an entirely different way. His stomach lurched. It was funny he only really noticed its ascent when it _stopped._ He swallowed and tried not to think about the ocean black and deep and full of monsters like that. He'd seen enough horror movies, he knew how this went.

"We need to get that thing away from the temple or we'll never reach the surface." He avoided looking Blaze in the eye. Hydrophobia probably wasn't contagious, but who knew.

"So we're going out?" Pretzel seemed way more cheered by this idea than she needed to be, considering _she_ was the one who nearly got them _both_ drowned not half an hour ago.

"Is that wise?" Blaze frowned. "It'll have the advantage out there."

"Well it's that or…" Sonic winced as the temple shuddered again, cracks appearing in the walls. It would break through soon, and there would be no stopping it. "Or we can reenact Jonah." Seeing the confused stares of his companions, he sighed. "Let's… let's just go." He took off down the hall, Blaze right beside him.

They paused at a fork, and Pretzel took the opportunity to shove past them, scampering down the hall at the fastest speed Sonic had seen her achieve yet. Not _fast,_ mind you, but fast _er_.

"Here." Pretzel sat with a splash and waved her wing at a broken door. That same invisible resistance as the window was here, and the moray was mercifully out of sight. A faint glimmer of sunlight shone invitingly above them.

"We could simply swim to the surface and leave the temple," Blaze suggested as though she had read his mind.

Sonic heaved a sigh. "No, we… we need the information in the temple. And that moray could cause trouble for the locals later. We've gotta fight it."

Blaze's mouth twitched as his morose expression, but she didn't comment.

"Okay." Sonic took a deep breath, glaring at the door as he shook out his limbs (as if _that_ would make a difference what was he _thinking_ he couldn't _swim_ they were going to _die)_. "Okay. Okay." He put his hand out in the water and allowed himself one last shudder. "Let's do this." He ironed the fear out of his voice and stepped into the dark. And the ocean was set on fire.


	18. Dance in the Dark

Looking through the window, Sonic hadn't fully appreciated the Moray's light show, but out here he got the full experience: the blinding flash of white, the almost-gasp that would have robbed him of his meager air supply, the sudden boiling heat of the water around him, the primal terror of being suspended, unable to see or hear or smell _anything_. It was quite impressive.

He hated it.

Well, to be entirely honest, _some_ part of him was _delighted_ by the increase in heat and light and the awesome fish-monster he was facing, but given the heat was boiling, the light was blinding, and the awesome fish-monster was _causing_ the previous two problems, he blamed the excitement on Light Gaia.

Bit by bit, his vision returned. Futilely trying to blink the spots from his vision, Sonic glanced over at Blaze as she floated beside him. If the water wasn't already burning, her glare would have done it. Pretzel, meanwhile… was unconscious again. Wonderful.

Sonic gestured wildly at Blaze. Despite the water slowing his movements, she caught on and grabbed Pretzel, dragging her back to the temple, glaring at the Moray over her shoulder the whole time.

 _It's just me and you, fish-monster,_ Sonic thought grimly, staring his opponent in the eye…

And then it disappeared.

This was going to be a _long_ fight.

Sonic turned slowly in the dark, wishing the spots from the blinding light moments before would go away. The heat faded from the water as quickly as it had come. His tail curled. He could _feel_ the ocean pressing down on his chest, tighter and tighter, like the world's wettest straight jacket.

Something brushed against him, and Sonic had a moment to close his eyes and try to swim away _stupid slow-ifying water_ before the fire flared around him. He bit down on his scream.

The light faded from his eyelids, and he opened them and spun in the water. No sign of the Moray. This was going swimmingly.

Feeling the burn in his lungs, Sonic struck out for the temple—he could see _that_ at least, the way it was glowing—and burst into the air with a gasp. "This is not going well," he announced. Blaze nodded from where she was trying to perform reverse-pyrokinesis on Pretzel's corpse unconscious body.

"Perhaps we should tag team," Blaze suggested. "Like we did with the Egg Salamander."

"That would help with the oxygen problem," Sonic conceded. "But we still need a plan for how to fight the thing when we can't even _see_ it."

"Can't see it?" Pretzel suddenly snapped, sending Sonic scrambling back with a yelp. Evidently she'd returned to the land of the living consciousness. "How can you _not_ see it? The thing's worse than the sun."

"Not all the time," Sonic argued.

Blaze squinted for a moment and then nodded slowly, as if she had seen some grand revelation. He wouldn't be surprised. "It does have a very bright aura…"

"Well I can't _see_ auras—" Sonic started to point out, but stopped. "Or…. maybe I can…"

"You have fun with burning out your retinas." Pretzel skittered up the wall and flicked her tail at them. "I'm going to poke around."

"You don't want to fight the fish-monster with us?"

"Eel. I'm good."

"Alright then," Sonic turned to Blaze, rubbing his hands together. "Just like the Egg Salamander."

"With the exception of oxygen."

"Eh, I wouldn't be so sure the dimensional rift—"

"Or the Emeralds."

"Yeah, those would be nice, but—"

"Or clear visibility."

"Blaze—"

"Or our friends cheering us on."

"BLAZE!" He rolled his eyes. "Do you want to go first?"

She smirked at him. "I was hoping for a chance to write my will."

Sonic sighed dramatically, resisting a grin. "You've been spending too much time with Pretzel."

As she chuckled, Sonic closed his eyes and focused. The light flared delightedly, hungry for battle. _Just a little, just a little,_ he urged. He grasped at the chill of the temple and imagined it cooling the fire down. It worked, a little. He felt he was walking a wire; fall one way and the light would take over, fall the other way and he wouldn't be able to use it.

He saw. His eyes were closed, yet the world shone sharp and clear. Too clear. Everything was light or dark, black or white, no in betweens. It reminded him of _claws on her throat too dark had to be destroyed burning burning burning—_

Blaze shined like a star. Glowing and subtle and full of color.

He smiled.

Keeping his eyes closed, Sonic slowly turned towards the window, hands out to keep from bumping into a wall. There it was: the Moray, glowing and weaving like an aurora borealis. Less colorful, more glaring and unnatural. _Its_ light was artificial.

Sonic took a deep breath and stepped out into the water again. It swirled coldly around him, invisible and enclosing. He fought past the tightness in his chest and focused on the constant glow of the Moray in his mind. Its aura spiked, and he had a moment's warning before light flared against his eyelids and the water went hot.

Sonic waited, watching as the impossibly long glow of its aura shot towards him, wrapped around him, brushed burning against his fur. It was playing with him.

Good.

The water cooled. The Moray moved languidly, comfortable in its invisibility. Sonic smirked and struck. The Moray's skin was cool and slimy and completely unprotected without the boiling heat.

Whaddya know. Having claws was kinda nice.

Sound waves reverberated through the water. The Moray thrashed. Lungs burning, Sonic started back towards the warmer beacon of Blaze's aura. His hand brushed the stone of the temple, and then the water was boiling again, and he couldn't stop from screeching as his fur burned and teeth sank into his tail. _Stupid thing_.

Water flooded his lungs. Choking, Sonic kicked out. On his third attempt his shoe struck something soft and the Moray lurched back long enough for him to pull free and reach in through the temple door. Warm, familiar hands grabbed his arms and tugged him to safety.

"Tag out," she murmured, and was gone.

Sonic raised himself to his knees and coughed, hacking water out of his lungs. "Ugh," he grumbled, futilely trying to wipe the salt taste out of his mouth. With effort he opened his eyes and glanced back at the door. The ocean was lit with ethereal fire, leaving the Moray with no place to hide. Blaze stood in the center of the physics-defying spectacle, eyes closed and brow furrowed with concentration. Her gloved hand was raised and shaking slightly. Her feathery cuffs and hair seemed almost alive in the water.

Sonic stayed crouched, regaining his breath and counting the seconds, while Blaze and the Moray circled each other in their blinding dance. Blaze was far more experienced with water than he was, and it showed. She moved quickly, quickly enough he could almost forget she was underwater if he hadn't known her true speed. For all their banter just minutes ago, there was no fear in her. Only fire.

But even Blaze had her limits. As the Moray retreated, burns patterning its face, the optical light faded, both fire and the Moray's fierce glow, leaving only their bright auras. Blaze struck out for the temple. Sonic got to his feet and reached for Blaze's hand. She entered less elegantly than she left, sprawling on the floor and gasping for air.

"Have fun?" Sonic teased.

She scowled at him. "We don't want to give it time to recover. Get moving, slowpoke."

Sonic's quills raised at the insult. " _This_ is why I called you _rude_."

She rolled her eyes and waved towards the door, evidently too worn out to get up. "Just go, please."

He grinned. "Aw, you said please! How bad did it hurt?" Before she could answer, he took a deep breath and stepped out into the ocean.

The freezing cold slapped away his smile, and his eyes scanned the depths wildly before he remembered and slammed them closed, moments before the light burned against his lids. Grimacing, Sonic tried to focus. The Moray's aura flickered into his mind a heartbeat before it was on him. Teeth tore at his shoulder, but he was prepared for the pain and kept from gasping.

Doing his best to ignore the searing heat, Sonic twisted and slashed his claws at the Moray. All he got for his trouble was singed fur and a desperate need for ice. He got his wish a few seconds later as the Moray darted away, the water cooling after it.

Sonic scowled, watching the eel's aura glowing a safe distance away. He was sick of this fish.

The light continued to boil in him. If he really looked at it, _listened_ to it (which he tried not to), it seemed almost… irked. He'd expected it to resist fighting the Light Moray, its own minion, but in fact it seemed eager, _vengeful_. If he took a little more time to listen, he might have figured out why, but he had a feeling that if he listened to close to the light, he wouldn't hear anything else ever again.

Eyes still closed, he looked at the glowing outline of his own hand. He thought about it. For only a second or two, but he did think. Blaze would be proud. He thought of his claws and how he didn't know how to use them. Thought of Blaze kneeling in the temple, gasping for breath. Thought of how tiring fighting underwater was. Thought of how unaffected the Moray was by their attacks.

Thought of fighting fire with fire.

Well, blind faith and reckless action _were_ his areas of expertise.

 _Let's go,_ he told it, and the white flames surged through him. Any feeling of cold vanished, and his wounds were forgotten as bright energy raced in his veins. His eyes flew open.

The Light Moray circled back around. Its light flared. Sonic smirked. He could almost imagine it gaping in shock that his eyes weren't blinded by the light, but then the eel was _always_ gaping (and what sharp teeth you have!), so.

He flared his wings, glaring down the Moray. For just a moment, it hesitated. It was only a heartbeat before it was surging forward again, but it was enough. His wings served just as well for swimming as they presumably did for flying, and he darted out of the way, leaving the Moray to charge into the temple. The _thud_ rippled through the water, and bits of dust and stone drifted down in a cloud around the Moray's dazed eyes. Nice.

The light faded from the Moray's skin, and Sonic dove. It writhed, still too dazed to get very far before Sonic was on it. Funny. Claws were so much more effective when you knew how to use them.

The Moray lit up again. Sonic backpedaled hurriedly. The eel lunged, but with a thrust of his wings Sonic shot out of the way… barely. He glanced briefly at the temple. Then his eyes drifted to his wings, and then up to the surface. Hmm…

To his credit, he spared a moment's thought to the tongue-lashing Blaze would give him about not following the plan. But if Sonic could take the Moray down by himself, no help needed, wasn't that better than a much slower plan that risked someone else getting hurt? No, Sonic could handle this himself. Blaze would understand. Probably.

Moment of thought passed, he turned to the surface and started swimming.


	19. Towards the Sun

Sonic reached the surface seconds before the Moray bit off his tail. Shame no one was there to see him burst out of the water with a spray of sparkling droplets into the frosty arctic air, the Light Moray's sharp fangs clamping shut inches below him as the creature arched in a magnificent attempt to pursue him.

But there was nobody.

Just him.

Just him, laughing with delight.

The crisp air filled his lungs, and if he wasn't already on fire with energy, he would've been now. It was all around him, the fresh wind ruffling his quills and tugging at his tail and filling his… wings.

He was _flying._

The realization struck him, and he laughed again. There was something exhilarating about flying without his super form. It was so much more… _exciting_ when he wasn't invincible. He could feel every tug of the wind, fought it for control. Felt the strain in his untrained wings. He was driven by currents and updrafts, fighting them to keep his course, all the challenge and rush of running but with even more directions, up and down and all around. It was _fantastic_.

Down below, the Light Moray thrashed pointedly. Ah, yes. Better get back to that before it went for the temple again.

"Yo!" Sonic shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Fish-face!"

The Moray was disappointingly _not_ insulted by the name calling, but it _was_ focused on him. Or he was pretty sure it was focused on him. It was hard to tell with the fish eyes and gaping expression.

The light sparked, and he almost yelped at the energy shooting through him. His wings folded, and he dove towards the Moray with graceful ease. The light zapped and surged, new instincts burning into his mind. Tilt, flare, flap, hold. As natural as running.

He skimmed the ocean, waiting till the last second to dodge the Moray's lunge. He baited it until its glow (much less effective up here) had faded, then darted in to slash its skin. The Moray shrieked and dove under the water, reemerging half a minute later with blazing white patterns. Sonic swooped upwards, hovering smugly for a moment before curling into a ball. Tuck the wings. Fall. The heat of the Moray's skin barely registered, only his quills digging into it.

Sonic rebounded and opened his wings again. He glanced down, lurched in midair.

The water was full of blood. It was clear as ice, but he knew the scent, saw how it clouded the water, and the thick liquid on his spines was unmistakable. He'd made the Moray bleed.

 _That was the goal,_ something argued, but whether it was the practical part of him or the possessed part of him, he didn't know. _The goal was to hurt._

The Moray's pained shriek pierced his ears. His wings faltered. He got one last glance at it, caught the gleam of metal on its skull, before it turned and dove underwater, leaving in its wake only a cloud of clear blood and the echoes of its scream, bouncing off the ice.

Sonic shivered.

It was cold up here.

He glanced up, towards the sun, flinched and looked away again. The light glared off the white snow and smooth ice, hash and without warmth. Warmth…

Blaze was still in the temple.

The Moray was going for the temple.

Sonic dove.

* * *

Pretzel hated the temple. It was bright, bright, bright. The walls shone, the floors shone, the windows shone. She was getting a headache. Or something worse than a headache. What was worse than a headache? Maybe a skullache. No, she decided, that was stupid.

Whatever Blaze might think, she _was_ trying to accomplish something. The others may have forgotten—Sonic most definitely had—but there _was_ an end goal here beyond beating up a mutant eel. They were gathering intel to defeat Light Gaia. And the more time she spent in this temple, the more she was _all for_ defeating Light Gaia.

The temple had clearly been made by humans, and the little buggers absolutely _adored_ the thing that was currently taking over the world. The walls were covered in images of… well, actually she wasn't _sure_ if it was Light Gaia, but it was very shiny and decorated and had a halo, so it seemed likely. Judging by all the carvings of this shining figure erecting cities and vanquishing enemies and generally helping out the little cheering stick figures, they saw it as some sort of savior. No wonder it had such an easy time brainwashing the globe. People loved a shiny white hero, didn't they?

Pretzel's sense of the cold ocean outside faded the deeper into the temple she went. She wished she could hang out in the ice water all the time, but then, the water _also_ had the giant, very Light Gaia-esque moray, so inside would suit her for now. And the deeper into the temple, the more information, right?

A door blocked her way.

Pretzel huffed. Considering what it had taken to open the door at the last temple, there was no way she was getting through that. Or maybe…

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Pretzel yelled, flaring her wings dramatically.

The door remained solid and unmovable.

She sighed and flopped to the ground. What a fantastic day this was turning out to be. Not that she had much to compare it to, but at least her first day alive there'd been less burning and more sneaking.

She squinted at the gap under the door. It was a pretty sizable gap, widened by water and time. She poked a hand through the gap, wriggling it around underneath. Maybe something would bite it off, wouldn't that be nice. Actually, it _might_ be worth it just to see the look on Sonic's face. Assuming it didn't send him a blood frenzy or something. Hedgehogs were strange, unpredictable creatures.

Something moved under the door, and she jumped back with a hiss before recognizing her own shadow. She glanced up at the light source behind her with an irritated glare, then back under the door. She waved her wing, and her shadow moved. Well, if her _shadow_ could do it…

Pretzel flattened herself to the ground and wriggled forward, calling upon all her non-existent snake instincts. For a moment she was stuck, for a moment too big, but she thought of shadows and water and somehow made it through. Perhaps she was part liquid.

Shaking out her wings, Pretzel stalked along the walls of the room. It was as well-lit as any part of this stupid temple, which meant way _too_ well lit. The only thing that could make it worse was if it had those annoying fake lights that were all the rage these days.

There were more murals on the walls, carvings and paintings and even some moldy tapestries. She raked her claws through one and tore down another. It fell with a thud in a cloud of dust, which helped her headache a little. Something drew her eye to the fallen tapestry, an unusual patch of dark thread. Ears pricked, she moved slowly towards it, tail swishing warily. It did not attack. Emboldened, she poked it with her claws until it was spread out enough for her to see the picture.

Once again, a crowd of cheering stick figures. Once again, the haloed, bright figure. But this time, there was another side. Something all black and purple and serpentine. It was long, almost as tall as Light Gaia. She couldn't see any legs, just oily black water and lots of arms. And eyes. It had many eyes, and a really weird head, and were its teeth _around_ its eyes?

It… looked kind of cool.

Its eyes were green.

Pretzel backed up, taking in the painting in full, and felt her heart shudder. Light Gaia's claws were dug into the dark thing, burning it, choking it.

 _Sonic-not-Sonic's claws digging into her dark fur, burning her, choking her._

The claws squeezed her chest tighter and tighter. She drew away, eyes darting over the other images on the walls. Surely there must be some sign, something telling her what the dark creature was.

Now she knew what she looking for, there were a few other pictures showing Light Gaia battling with the dark thing. It would cast the creature down, and the people would cheer. The creature would rise, and the people would run in fear. Once, the creature won, only for a little bit, and the people sneered and burned it and Light Gaia came back and the world was perfect and smiley again.

The dark creature's name, she did not know.

She felt again drawn to its eyes. Green and cold and sharp. Like snakes and ice and limes. Venomous and cold and bitter. Yet beneath them… yellow. Fear.

Maybe it was her.

Pretzel turned and ran, back into the shadows and away from the cold green eyes.


	20. The Current

The ocean was cool and dark and bloody. Sonic shuddered at the feeling of it and swam on, chasing the flickering glow of the Moray. It was hard to tell, with the black water pressing on his eyes, whether he was following its actual light or its aura. Maybe there wasn't a difference.

He saw the temple, shimmering like a pearl despite its years, floating in the water like it was a plastic bag and not a truly massive, incredibly ancient stone structure. And wrapped around it was the glowing skeleton pattern of the Moray, flashing like a strobe light. He'd thought the water was hot before, but now it was fire, burning and choking on all sides. He hissed. Pressed on.

He swam towards the beast, hovered over it. One yellow eye focused on him. The beast hissed, jerked its gaze away, and wound tighter, the temple crumbling and cracking. Wonderful, _now_ it was focused on its mission.

 _(But why would Light Gaia's minion be destroying Light Gaia's temple?)_

 _(The gleam of metal on its skull…)_

 _(A finger pressing on a button…)_

Ah. Of course.

Furious light burned in the green.

This would not stand.

Bright blue danced through the water, hooked claws slicing at the Moray's head. More blood. It tried to swim away, releasing the temple in an effort to avoid the attacks. The blue didn't pause, darting around its head with relentless swipes. The Moray lunged, teeth snapping shut centimetres from the yellow tipped tail. Finally realizing it was fighting a losing battle, the Moray struck the temple with its tail one last time and swam rapidly away. A blue bolt shot after it, green eyes focused on the distant shine of the metal.

The Moray sped up, pattern flashing on and off irregularly. It swept its tail, trying to slice its pursuer with the sharp feathers. A thin trail of blood, bright red and warm, entered the water, but the chase did not stop.

An icy wall rose above them. The Moray slowed, circling uncertainly. Its pursuer stopped as well, hovering above it. Bright sunlight shone through the water and refracted in light green wings. Glinting green eyes focused on the metal contraption fixed to the Light Moray's head. This would be quick.

The Moray whipped around and rammed into the ice. The hunter moved in, slipping around its thrashing and reaching for the head…

A chunk of ice hit the water.

The hunter paused. Curious.

Bright yellow and orange flared in the ocean, and he whirled around. Before he could react, Blaze was grabbing his arm and dragging him to the surface. The Moray took the opportunity to resume ramming into the cliff. More cracks formed, massive pieces of ice and even a little rock tumbling into the water.

They broke into the air with matching gasps. Sonic tried to tug free, but she only gripped him harder, claws digging into his fur. He looked up. Yellow eyes met green in a burning glare. Sonic swallowed.

"H-hey, Blaze!" He tried for a grin. "What—"

" _What_ were you _thinking_!?" She shoved him forcefully, sending waves batting at their muzzles. "What happened to the plan!? What happened to 'sticking together'!?" The exaggerated impression of him was _not_ necessary.

"Well…" Sonic started to say, then yelped as she roughly dragged him out of the way of a falling piece of ice.

"Never mind that now! We need to get out of here!" She finally released him, leaving him to doggy paddle while she twisted around as if looking for something.

"We can't just leave!" Sonic argued. "We need to stop that thing!"

"You can stop it by defeating Light Gaia," she growled. "This isn't a battle you need to fight."

"Why not? It wouldn't take a min—"

"No! You need to focus on your mission, and I need to focus on mine. We've already wasted enough time here!"

"It's under Eggman's control!"

"Oh, and now you want to _help it_?"

Sonic scowled. Ice water lapped against his face as he and Blaze glared at each other. The moment dragged on for what felt like hours before he said, with finality, "Yes."

Blaze huffed, but seemed to read the stubbornness in his eyes and didn't argue. "Fine. How are you going to do it?"

"There's a device on its head," Sonic shrugged, which was hard to do while treading water. "All I have to do is get it off."

"Very well. I will draw its attention, and you will get the device off." Sonic grinned, but she cut him off before he could say anything. "And stick with the plan this time, won't you?" Without waiting for an answer, she dove under the water. Sonic took a deep breath and followed her.

The ocean was yet again lit with impossible fire, ribbons of red and orange and yellow flaring in an eye catching display. It lasted just long enough to catch the Moray's attention, and then Blaze was moving in. While the two dueled, Sonic swam up behind the Moray, eyes on the device.

 _Almost…_ His fingers brushed the cold metal, when suddenly the Moray lit up and whipped around. Sonic jerked back with a gasp, then clapped a hand over his mouth too late.

Blaze's eyes met his, and she nodded up at the surface. He stubbornly ignored the hint and the burning in his lungs, focusing on the device. He could work past the heat, he could end this—

The Moray whipped its body, catching his shoulder with its feathers. Spots filled his vision, but he could just make out the metal thing. Blaze slashed at the Moray's face, and it turned to her. Sonic reached out, reached for the silver… His fingers touched something unnaturally smooth, and he grasped, pulled. Almost—yes!

The device came free. For just a moment, everything was still.

And dark.

And cold.

Then the Moray lit up again. It was thrashing wildly, something strange yet familiar, wild and burning in its eyes. The light flared in response. The world alternated wildly between black and white and Sonic could almost hear music playing in the back of his head, music with a rapid, warning tempo that was getting faster and faster as his mind got slower and slower…

Something bright called, a different color than the light...

And then his head was breaking the surface and he was coughing and gasping for air. Black and white spots battled for control of his vision. Somewhere far away, someone was talking. Shouting? There was a challenge in the voice. It sounded familiar. A hand was digging into his arm, and an arm was keeping his head up, and a head was talking above him.

Air filled his lungs. At least some of the spots faded away, and he blinked the salt from his eyes. Sound was coming back.

"…hear me?" Ah. Blaze had saved him. Again. "…need to climb…" What?

Now she was shoving him away. He instinctively reached for the ice in front of him. Why was his shoulder burning? Why was _everything_ burning? Why was it so hard to focus? What was Blaze doing?

He blinked furiously, willing his eyes to clear, and shook his head. He looked back, towards Blaze, and felt his stomach drop.

She was paddling in the water with practiced ease, eyes locked on the Moray's. The eel was hovering uncertainly in front of her, its wild light flickering.

"Blaze!" Sonic shouted.

She looked up at him and, shockingly, smiled. "Just climb, Sonic!"

He opened his mouth to argue… and the Moray lunged, grabbing Blaze in its jaws and diving into the water.

Sonic was pushing off the cliff before he had time to comprehend what had happened. At the last second he remembered his wings and opened them, but this time the light refused to guide his flight, and he fell into the ocean.

Stubbornly, he struck out, willing himself to swim. He moved, slowly, not fast enough. And to where? The Moray was nowhere in sight. The ocean spread around him, black and empty. No warm fire, no blinding light. Only vast ocean and echoing silence.

It was cold.


	21. Lost Things and Bat Wings

It took Sonic half an hour to get out of the ocean and find his way back to the Holoskan village, only for him to remember Pretzel's existence and sprint back to look for her. It took another fifteen minutes of running up and down the coastline searching for where he'd left the temple before he finally ran into her, sitting in the snow with icicles hanging off her wings.

"Pretzel?" Sonic asked when she didn't look up.

"Portals in the temple," she muttered, and slipped into the sea without another word.

He stood for a moment in the gathering wind. The ocean laughed at him. He could feel it, gathering just outside his skull, held back only by the bits of light left. Of course it was when he actually _needed_ Light Gaia's energy that it ditched him. Forcing himself to take a breath, Sonic gathered the scraps of fire the Moray hadn't stolen, shuddered, and stepped off the cliff. The wind screamed in his ears. He couldn't tell what it was saying anymore.

Ice water smacked his muzzle. Salt stung in his cuts. He forced his eyes open, chased the flicking of Pretzel's tail and the glow of the temple. It was still floating halfway between the floor and the surface, though now it was starting to drift slowly downwards. It lit up again when Sonic entered it. The light felt strangely cold.

Silently, Pretzel led him to an inner room matching the one in Mazuri and somehow slipped under the door. It swung open, inviting, hungry. He glanced briefly at the carvings on the walls, but the ocean was pressing and he didn't want to be here a moment longer. Pretzel waited by the door with the stilt hut, still not looking anywhere but the ground. He mentally flicked through things he could say, fell short, and focused his energy on shoving the portal open. The cut on his shoulder twinged, but he got the door open. Humid night brushed his fur.

Immediately, the white light surged back to life, warning. He felt the incoming pain but forced himself to step through the door regardless. The light seized him, burning and roaring defiance, shouting its ownership as it tore at his chest and dug jagged gashes into the inside of his skull. The night dragged it away, kicking and screaming, leaving Sonic to collapse emptily on the wood.

He memorized the patterns on the planks, searching for the energy to stand. One moment. Two. He clenched his fists, then forced them to relax, forced himself to breathe. The cold receded.

Sonic sat up. Water lapped at the boards under him, and waves rushed softly somewhere nearby. He shuddered, closing his eyes. Boots tapped on creaking wood, drawing closer.

"You look like a mess." Rouge stood over him with a smirk. Something like concern shaded her eyes.

"I _feel_ like a mess," Sonic muttered, grimacing at the scratchiness of his throat and the residual taste of salt. Rouge chuckled and offered her hand. He gratefully took it, stumbling to his feet.

"Did you lose—" She cut herself off as Pretzel coiled around their feet, green eyes glowing faintly in the dark. "Ah. Was your trip successful?"

"We lost Blaze," Sonic rasped. He glanced at Pretzel, who had her back to him. " _I_ lost Blaze. The Light Moray took her."

Rouge's eyes widened, then narrowed. "Let's get something to eat. Then you can tell me everything."

* * *

The telling was surprisingly short. Hot food helped, even if the salt water he'd swallowed and the constant murmur of the ocean nearby made it hard to have an appetite. Rouge nodded at his description of the Light Moray, gesturing to her device lying on the table.

"I've been researching the legends about Light Gaia. They say it can transform ordinary animals into brilliant warriors. They way they described it, it's almost like what you do with the Chaos Emeralds, only longer lasting." She showed him aged drawings of bright, fierce creatures: a bird with wings of fire, a lizard with the sun on its head… and the moray, long and serpentine, adorned with flame like a dragon of the east.

"It's funny," Rouge mused. "It was people, ancient humans, who built these temples and made these images. They worshipped Light Gaia as a hero."

Pretzel snorted, the first sound she'd made since they arrived. "It's a force of nature. How can it be a hero?"

Sonic poked thoughtfully at his food. He glanced outside at the dark night. What had the Holoskan man said? "It's… it's making the world warmer and the days longer, right?" Rouge nodded. "And the people under its control seem… happy. At least, they do until they run into something…" He shot a sideways glance at Pretzel. "Dark."

Pretzel dug her claws into the table, curling her tail around herself.

"It's not _good_ ," Sonic added quickly, remembering the pain and the tearing and the burning. "But… it could be _mistaken_ for it."

"Night is when you aren't under its control… " Rouge mused, looking out the window. "It seems the darkness weakens it." She suddenly smiled. "Perhaps we should start operating at night."

Sonic sighed and laid his head on the table. "Does that mean I'm not getting any sleep tonight?"

Rouge laughed. "If we leave for Empire City soon, it'll be day there and you can sleep." Her expression grew serious. "Which reminds me. You didn't tell me what happened to Blaze."

Sonic nodded wearily, drew himself up. "We— _I_ was fighting the Moray. It had this device on its head, like it was being controlled by Eggman. I tried to get it off and— I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it grabbed her and swam off."

"If it was being controlled by Eggman, he most likely took her hostage." She pulled up a map on her screen. "We know where several of his bases—"

"It wasn't being controlled by Eggman," Sonic interrupted. "I pulled the device off."

"I see." Rouge was quiet for a moment, then coughed. "Well. Even if the Moray _wasn't_ under his direct command, Eggman does still control Light Gaia itself, or is trying to control it. Perhaps…" She trailed off.

Sonic nodded again. Perhaps. He rested his head on his arms. It was quiet for a moment.

"Enough moping. We need to regroup." Sonic jerked awake—had he fallen asleep?—as Rouge stood. She grabbed his arm, prompting a twinge of pain from his shoulder, and pulled him after her out of the shop. Pretzel brushed past his leg as she darted out the door behind them.

Rouge walked briskly between buildings lifted on stilts, Sonic stumbling after her. He grimaced as what was very clearly a temple loomed over them. He was _really_ sick of these things.

This temple was evidently frequented more than the others, complete with helpful explanatory plaques and sectioned off areas to keep tourists on track. Rouge led them under a warning rope and into the inner room. Thankfully, it was open. No need for a Chaos spear or…. Whatever Pretzel had done.

"Here." Rouge opened one of the doors without ceremony, and when Sonic didn't move, she grabbed his arm and dragged him towards it. He hissed as pain shot through his shoulder, the warning fiercer and more demanding this time. Rouge glanced at him with concern. "That thing really did a number on you, huh?"

Sonic looked at his shoulder and the chunk the Moray had taken out of it. At least it wasn't bleeding. "Eh."

Rouge sighed, muttered something under her breath about hedgehogs in general, and pushed through the door. Without thinking, Sonic followed her.

That was a mistake.

A fresh pain hit him, and white light flooded everything. Rouge shouted something as he fell, and there was a loud noise, metallic and artificial. The light roared in his ears, blazing gleefully and wracking him with energy. Savage. Burning. It came up against the odd dark thing in his head and threw a tantrum at being resisted, raking claws through his skin and boiling his blood, making him feel every unnatural twist of his muscles and stretch of his skin as punishment. White fire filled _everything_.

Something cool and dark touched him, and he gasped. Air pushed the light back, enough for him to take the reins. He blinked rapidly. Rouge was watching with concern, while Pretzel skittered away from his feet to crouch warily in the shadows. Evidently Rouge had dragged him into some kind of tunnel.

Sonic checked his hands. Unnatural yellow once more.

Time zones sucked.

"You with us?" Rouge asked, and he belatedly noticed the scratches on her uniform. He looked at his hands again with fresh dread. Time zones _really_ sucked.

"Yeah." He made himself look up at her again. At least his throat wasn't so rough anymore, and the pain in his shoulder was gone. Funny how that had stayed when he detransformed, and disappeared when he… retransformed? Maybe Light Gaia was trying to get on his good side. Nice try, but he wasn't sure he _had_ a good side anymore.

"...alright." Rouge looked at him sideways as she stepped away, pulling out her ever-present device thing. He really needed to ask what it was. A handheld computer? A GPS? For all he knew, it could be a glorified DS.

A piercing, familiar sound had his ears swiveling toward the entrance to the tunnel. He took a few steps forward, squinting. Was that… screaming? He glanced back at Rouge. She shrugged. Sonic darted out of the tunnel and into the open, scanning for the source of the scream.

Oh.

The city was on fire.


	22. Rome Wasn't Burnt In A Day

The city was huge and loud and bright. It was also on fire.

Pretzel shrank against the cement, futilely trying to escape the waves of heat by hiding under her wings. Screams stabbed through the air. She sniffed the air and grimaced at the acrid taste of smoke. Still, she didn't smell death or the now familiar stench of burning flesh and fur, so what were they so worked up about? Dumb humans.

Behind the irrational fleeing noisy humans, red flames licked hungrily at blackened buildings. It reminded her of… ah. There he was. The dark red aura, though it seemed brighter and lighter than she remembered, gliding through and around and behind the rubble. But what was he running fro—

A blast of sound tore through the air. Pretzel lunged back towards the tunnel, pressing herself against the wall as invisible claws tried to crush her pounding heart.

"Shadow!" Rouge's voice reached her clearly, and she peered out warily to see her flying overhead, the blinding sun casting her shadow dark and long. Her grey aura shone energetically. Everyone was just so _bright_ today. " _What_ did you _do_!?"

The black hedgehog skated up, sliding to an easy stop next to Sonic, who backed away uncomfortably. Shadow looked up at Rouge, frowning. " _I_ did not do anything."

Rouge huffed and landed, putting her hands on her hips (Pretzel took note of the pose for future use.) "Oh, I'm _sure,_ Mr. I'll-Start-An-Alien-Invasion-And-Not-Tell-Any-Of-My-Friends."

" _I_ didn't start it!" Shadow protested, offended. "And I did _not_ do anything. This was all GUN's doing."

"Really?" Rouge looked around with renewed interest. "Now _why_ would they do that?"

"They were… upset that I was not following orders." The flickering of his aura suggested this was a gross understatement.

Rouge rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

"Well, at least they've stopped shooting." She glanced down the street. "I suppose I'll have to speak to them if we want it to stay that way."

Shooting? Was that what the loud noise was? Was there going to be _more_? Pretzel tried to press herself further into the ground, but jumped up with a hiss as she realized how hot it was even in the shade. This city was trying to boil her alive.

"Here." Rouge handed Sonic that thing they were always looking at. It had a funny sort of energy and made Pretzel uncomfortable in the same way as the sharp angles and hard surfaces of the city. "This should show you the… Oh." She hit it a few times and frowned. "Your energy's confusing it. Maybe it would be better if Pretzel held it." Pretzel felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine when Sonic's gaze immediately snapped to where she was hiding. Rouge followed it and offered the thing to Pretzel. "This will show you two the way to the hotel. I'll stay here and help clean up Shadow's mess." She cast a glare at Shadow that didn't hold any malice. He hmphed and turned away sulkily.

"Good luck," Sonic laughed. There was something funny about the sound that Pretzel couldn't quite place. She didn't have time to ponder it as Sonic darted down the street, raced back again to check the map over her shoulder, and ran off once more.

Pretzel was occupied trying to hold the _extremely unwieldy_ map-thing and walk at the same time. The weight didn't bother her, but holding it meant standing on two legs, which was uncomfortable and impractical. She tried flying a few times, but her cargo kept throwing her balance off, and she had to drop to the ground again and resume her bad monkey imitation.

As they moved out of sight of the others and away from the fire, Sonic stopped running ahead and started walking beside her. He was quiet, which would have been a relief if it wasn't so suspicious. Calm didn't suit him. She kept waiting for him to attack her or crack a joke or _something_ , but he was just… quiet. It felt wrong.

"I'm sorry," he said suddenly.

Pretzel almost fell over, but she caught herself with her wings and looked up at him sharply.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I'm sorry I tried to kill you and I'm sorry I burned you and I'm sorry I forgot about you. That's what I should have said earlier."

They walked in silence for several moments more. Finally, she said, "I'm used to it. I think."

Sonic laughed. It sounded bitter and wrong. "Well. You shouldn't be."

They were both quiet the rest of the way to the hotel. The receptionist immediately directed them to the rooms Rouge had checked out.

"There are three others coming, correct?" The human checked.

Sonic dropped his gaze. "No. Just two."

The human nodded, wrote something down, and scurried away.

The room was all white sheets and cream carpets, and Pretzel walked tentatively, afraid she might stain them with her presence. Sonic, too, moved carefully, uncomfortable in the neatness of the room. He dragged back the coverings on one bed—Pretzel had to help—and thumped around the pillows a bit. Evidently this put him more at ease, as he sat down and kicked off his shoes. He pulled a face, tugged off his hideous socks with a vengeance, and tossed them on the other bed. Then he flopped into the first bed and pulled the coverings around him in a nest. Pretzel perched on the headboard. She pulled her wings around her, doing her best to block out the light, and closed her eyes.

The quiet lasted for all of a few seconds before Sonic leapt out of bed again, darting over to the windows and yanking the curtains closed. He zipped to the other end and flicked something on the wall, plunging them into darkness. Pretzel watched in amusement as Sonic (or his aura, at least) stumbled towards her, tripping over everything possible, before finally falling face first into the bed.

"Good night, Pretzel." he mumbled into a pillow.

Pretzel smirked and slid down onto the other pillow, wriggling until she was comfortable. "It's day."

"It's always night time somewhere," Sonic muttered. It was a pleasant thought.

She was almost asleep when Sonic shot upright with a yell. She startled and nearly fell off the bed, digging her claws in just in time. Well, hopefully no one would notice the scratches.

"What if the Moray took Blaze to Light Gaia!? And what if Light Gaia is brainwashing her _right now_!?" Sonic was bolting to the door before Pretzel could process what he said. She pulled herself fully onto the bed and glared at him.

"You're supposed to be sleeping."

"But it could be—"

" _Could._ Wait for Rouge."

Sonic sighed in frustration and flopped dramatically onto the bed. While he wriggled around, Pretzel studied the blankets. Her claws hadn't left a mark. She glanced up at Sonic, writhing around like a two-year-old throwing a fit. A two-year-old with very sharp quills. Huh. Hedgehog proof blankets. Made sense.

"I can't sleep." Sonic announced loudly after five minutes of thrashing.

"I gathered," Pretzel growled dryly. "Have you tried _staying still_?"

Sonic flung out his hands in frustration, nearly hitting Pretzel's nose. She glared at his fingers, sorely tempted to bite them. "I've _been_ trying! Part of me is exhausted and wants to sleep, and another part of me is full of energy and wants to just— run!" He kicked the bed for emphasis, or maybe just because he was an actual child.

"The energy is artificial. You need to sleep."

Sonic huffed and rolled over. "Tell that to the magic caffeine."

Pretzel considered for a moment, then stalked across the bed and sat beside him. She ignored the burning feeling and focused on his aura. It was bright and hot and writhed with energy. Artificial. A mask. She focused on her own shadow, making it spread its wing. She imagined it splashing over the flames like ice water. She imagined it as cool shade on a hot day. She imagined it forcing Light Gaia away from Sonic, just a little bit.

Something brushed bright and warm against her mind. Colors and sounds echoed faintly and then were gone.

Sonic flopped on his pillow, still grumbling but growing steadily quieter and stiller. Pretzel smiled and curled up to sleep.

Outside, the city was still on fire. She couldn't care less.


	23. Debrief in Brief

"Sleep" was a rather loose concept for Pretzel, and even as she rested she was keenly aware of Rouge and Shadow's auras approaching the hotel. She couldn't seem to shut down the watching, wary part of her brain. Wasn't sure she wanted to.

She knew Shadow was the one tapping softly on the door, and that Rouge murmured to him that Sonic was probably asleep. And she was the only who knew that Sonic tensed at the soft sounds, slightly relaxed when he recognized their voices, kept himself curled in a tight ball no matter what. Guess they were both light sleepers.

And yet… strangely, Pretzel felt no need to sit up. She felt no need to open her eyes or prick her ears or slip into the shadows. She felt their auras and knew them better than she knew herself, and somehow… she trusted them.

"Pretzel," Shadow muttered, and she blinked at him. "I believe you would like a say in our discussion."

Pretzel glanced at Sonic.

"Let him sleep," Rouge said from the windowsill, sunlight peeking through the blinds and playing across her white fur. "We're going to need him in top condition, and he's not used to being nocturnal."

Pretzel rose and spread her wings, leaping soundlessly across the room to land beside Rouge on the windowsill. "He won't rest long."

Shadow walked over to join them, leaning against the wall for a moment before giving up on appearances and sitting cross legged on the floor. Rouge smirked but didn't comment.

"We're trying to figure out our next move," She explained for Pretzel's benefit. "The temples don't seem to have the information we need, and we're running out of time."

"Did Shadow find anything out?" No one was surprised to hear Sonic's voice. He slipped off the bed and joined Shadow on the floor with a cheeky grin. Rouge rolled her eyes, but seemed to accept there was no more rest to be had.

"I did, actually." Shadow picked up his version of Rouge's magic-map-box thing. "The temple here is a reconstruction of an older one, which was destroyed—" Sonic winced at that "—but I believe it is accurate enough." He passed around the thing, which showed images like those seen in the other temples. Pretzel glanced at it, and her eyes instantly focused on that same, dark thing from the Holoska temple. "It seems Light Gaia and Dark Gaia have fought many times. They call it a cycle of rebirth— Light or Dark awakes first, and soon enough its opposite follows and they battle. Light Gaia wins, and both seal themselves in the Earth to regain their strength until the cycle begins again."

"So we need Dark Gaia," Rouge concluded.

Shadow hesitated. "I… would not be so sure." He swiped a finger across the pictures, and another picture appeared. Light Gaia dragging Dark Gaia down into the earth… and leaving behind nothing but ruins and bones. "It is called the cycle of rebirth because every time it happens, civilization has to be reborn."

"Ah," Rouge said, and they were all silent for a minute.

"So we shouldn't get Dark Gaia," Sonic shifted on the carpet. "It would be too destructive a fight. But what if we used the Chaos Emeralds?" Pretzel started to ask what these "Chaos Emeralds" were, but decided against it.

"So you could fight it in your Super form?" Rouge checked. Okay, now they were just spouting nonsense. _Super form_? "What if it took control of you again?"

Sonic winced. "I think having the Chaos Emeralds would help, maybe."

"Or they could make it worse," Shadow pointed out, not unkindly.

Rouge studied Sonic thoughtfully. "That is something I've been wondering about. The others under Light Gaia's control seem to be _completely_ under Light Gaia's control. They never resist it, not that we can tell. Yet here you are, completely transformed by it, and plotting its downfall. And it's letting you."

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe my dark side's just too much for it."

"You don't _have_ a dark side," Shadow said dryly.

Sonic stuck his tongue out at him, and Shadow rolled his eyes. " _Anyway_ , even if the Chaos Emeralds don't help _me_ , Shadow has a Super form too. We could gang up on it!"

"It _has_ worked in similar situations in the past," Shadow agreed like this talk of superior shapes caused by expensive minerals was normal. "And I have other intel relating to that. Dr. Eggman still has the Emeralds."

Sonic perked up. "He does? Do we know _where_ he has them?"

Rouge tapped at Shadow's… what _was_ that thing? A magic tablet? The fox had had one when she first woke up, and they seemed to be used to conjure images. Interactive images. Speaking of images, it was now showing what she mercifully recognized as a map, with many names and colors and shapes she didn't understand.

"We believe he has at least a few at his base in Chun-nan." Rouge zoomed in on a very boring square. Didn't seem very helpful.

Sonic looked up. "Wait. Wasn't there a—"

"Yes, one of the temple doors leads there. Eggman has taken over the local Gaia temple, though he isn't there in person right now, if our intelligence is correct."

"That's a shame," Sonic growled. "I owe him a thing or two."

"If it makes you feel any better, you'll probably get to cause plenty of property damage." Rouge assured him, and Sonic grinned. "Besides, he may be holding Blaze there, if Light Gaia is still obeying him."

Sonic's smile faded. "I hope so."

Shadow looked between them. "What happened to the princess?"

Rouge glanced at Sonic, and he sighed. "She joined me at Holoska when she couldn't find any leads on the Sol Emeralds in Shamar. There ended up being this giant moray. She thought we should just leave, but I…" He glanced down. "I was determined to fight it. It was being controlled by Eggman, so I took the device off, but that just seemed to make it madder. Blaze saved me, and it grabbed her and swam off." He dragged a claw over the carpet, not looking up.

"I see." Shadow frowned. "Then this is a rescue as well." He looked at Rouge. "What's the plan?"

The bat grinned. "I'm glad you asked."


	24. Red and Grey

_Apparently_ , what was 4:30 in the afternoon in Empire City was close to sunrise in Chun-nan, and that didn't suit Rouge's needs. Time zones. So annoying. Rouge said they needed to wait till 9 am here so it would be 9 _pm_ there, which meant practically a _whole day_ of doing _nothing._ When Sonic made it clear he would not be doing anymore sleeping, Rouge assigned him to get supplies. The fact that he didn't know where anything was in the city or even what supplies they could possibly need did not seem to perturb her.

To be fair, Shadow got sent to smooth things over with GUN, so at least Sonic wasn't the only one with a sucky job. _Pretzel_ , meanwhile, got to stay in the hotel room. Rouge said it was because Pretzel was quiet and Pretzel said it was because she would turn to dust in the sunlight, but Sonic was pretty sure she was just watching cartoons. Did anyone ask if _he_ would rather watch Phineas and Ferb than go shopping for things they didn't even need? _No._ And just because he destroyed one— okay, _two_ curtains! He'd apologized!

Griping aside, it was… nice, seeing the city. He didn't come here often, for obvious reasons, but looking around now, it was new enough that it didn't hurt like he'd thought it would. Brainwashed smiles aside, it seemed like a perfectly normal city. He could almost forget…

Until he came across the monument.

Sonic stopped and looked up at it in silence. The wind rushed softly through his quills. Late afternoon sunlight gleamed off the fragile glass, casting a surprisingly soft orange glow over the plaque. The top read, in simple bold font, "Heroes". There was a list of names below it. Sonic smiled when he saw Tails' name, and felt an odd twist in his gut when he saw his own name beside it. It… seemed odd. Out of place. He resisted the urge to try and rub it off. He knew it wouldn't work.

Sonic looked up at the monument itself. A wave of broken glass, metal, and stone, crashing over his head. Below it, bravely holding the line, were gifts and photos, faces and flowers. He rubbed a finger thoughtfully over the money Rouge had given him, smiled, and darted across the street. The purple hyacinths fit in perfectly.

* * *

The next morning, Shadow took them to the local temple, where once again the inner room was lined with doors.

"Surprised you didn't have to break this entrance, too," Rouge commented.

"Actually, someone had a key."

This time, Sonic was prepared for the whiplash of stepping from day to night… not that it made much of a difference. Rouge offered him a bag of trail mix and a canteen of coffee before bleeding into the night with Pretzel. Shadow stood by silently while Sonic regained his strength, stoically accepting a handful of trail mix. Sonic hid a smirk as Shadow picked out the bits he didn't like with an expression like he was performing brain surgery.

Finally, Sonic stood and stretched, willing the shakiness from his limbs. He nodded at Shadow. "Let's get this over with."

A ghost of a smile flitted over Shadow's face. "Let's." He took off down the street (conveniently cordoned off due to the whole Eggman-took-over-the-temple thing), leaving a trail of red sparks in his wake. Sonic chuckled and raced after him. It was time to make some noise.

* * *

Whoever "Eggman" was (was he that giant metal termite that Sonic had been chasing in the hot place? weird), he was evidently a fast worker. Rouge and Shadow made it sound like he just took over the temple yesterday, and yet already massive silver structures cast deep shadows over Pretzel and Rouge, surrounding the temple like a miniature (and by that she meant how far it spread, not how tall it loomed) city. Strange, equally shiny beings marched around it, lights glowing like eyes in what she guessed were their heads. They remind her of the giant termite. Maybe they were its children.

Rouge held out an arm, indicating for her to wait. The bat watched the beings keenly for a moment before signaling Pretzel to move forward. They darted between patrols and pressed into the shadows of the building wall. Something glinted in the corner of Pretzel's vision, and she looked up to see a black, shiny thing sticking out of the wall.

"Security camera," Rouge murmured, voice pitched so that no one but Pretzel could hear her. While Sonic had been out on pointless errands, Rouge and Pretzel had practiced. Rouge had taught her simple hand signals, basic stealth tactics, and how to use "bombs". Pretzel liked bombs. Especially the quiet bombs that made Sonic sneeze and stumble around like an idiot. They had also established each others hearing ranges; evidently, Pretzel could hear both higher and lower than Rouge, something the bat claimed was "quite impressive".

(Pretzel had also learned what cartoons were and that she did, in fact, have a sense of humor. Not that that was particularly useful in this situation, but it might come in handy later. Maybe if some mob thought she was a heartless monster? A non-brainwashed mob open to hearing what she had to say, anyway.)

Rouge took something that looked like a bomb and placed it on the camera. It sparked quietly and then drooped. "We don't have much time. Let's go." She peeled away from the wall and spread her wings, flying almost silently to the roof. Pretzel followed, keeping an eye on the patrolling guards in case they were spotted. She tugged the shadows after them like a cape, deflecting the ominous glowing lights.

"Batman," Sonic had said when he returned with the groceries (i.e. trail mix, bananas, peanut butter and coffee) and saw them practicing scaling buildings (or more specifically, the hotel). Pretzel liked that. _Batman._

Now perched on top of the building, Rouge tapped on the roof. Her ears, round and white like the moon, were turned towards her work, catching every sound. The pitch changed slightly at one part, and Rouge took what Pretzel knew from practice that this was some sort of glorified knife that glowed blue and burned white. It was also very hot (not that she'd touched it or anything). It cut a clean circle in the roof, and the two of them slipped down into some sort of small passage.

"Ventilation shaft," Rouge told her. "Classic weakness. Wouldn't be surprised if we ran into some lasers in here, so keep your eyes peeled."

"Understood," Pretzel murmured, watching as Rouge sprayed something ahead of them before crawling forwards. They crawled several… well… they probably crawled _a distance_ before Rouge called a halt. The spray-thing revealed the presence of red beams of light. The aforementioned lasers, presumably.

"Let me see…" Rouge murmured, studying the walls intently. Pretzel frowned, concentrating on the lasers. They _seemed_ to just be beams of light. Rouge flicked on a flashlight, and Pretzel glanced to the side, looking at her own shadow looming over her. She reached out a wing, spreading the darkness, imagining the shadows spreading and congealing and dispelling the bright lasers.

Shockingly? It worked.

"Well, well, well," Rouge said appreciatively as the lasers vanished into darkness. "Aren't you just full of surprises?"

They reached their target, and Rouge cut another neat hole in the steel. They dropped into the room, and while Rouge disabled the guards—machines, it seemed, from the way they sparked and the way the metal parts went flying—, Pretzel wove through the shadows, poking at the various shiny, complicated things and taking out security cameras and automated… guns, right? A chunk of metal vaguely resembling a head slammed down near her. Pretzel glanced up at Rouge, who finished her kick neatly and leaned over some sort of… screen, that was what it was called. Like a magic window. A window to a land of confusing shapes.

"Here," Rouge announced after a few minutes of fiddling. "It mentions something about a prisoner, lines up with when Blaze was taken." She frowned. "It seems she's being held in the temple itself, but there isn't a map." She looked at Pretzel. "Can you find your way there?"

Pretzel concentrated for a moment, and was immediately aware of a very bright aura in a building nearby. "Yes."

"Lovely. Find Blaze and free her if you can." Rouge rummaged in the pockets of her uniform. "Here, take these." Pretzel accepted a cutter, which was like _two_ knives put together, and three EMPs. This day just got better and better. "You know how to use them. If you can't rescue Blaze, just establish her location and meet Sonic and Shadow outside. They should be easy to find, just follow the explosions." Rouge put her own tools away and moved for the door, stopping to press her ear to the wall. She started tugging off her bulky uniform gloves.

"What are you going to do?" Pretzel demanded.

Rouge smirked, pulling on an elbow-length white glove with a pink cuff. "What I do best." She was gone before Pretzel could question her further.

Pretzel grabbed the cutter and EMPs in her mouth (she'd found it was the most convenient way to hold them; Rouge had been impressed by how far her jaws could open). Paws freed, she focused on the auras again, briefly following Rouge's as it slunk down the hall before focusing on the brighter, farther one. Ignoring her instincts, which loudly advised her to flee in the opposite direction, Pretzel moved towards the light.

With the shadows on her side, it was a simple matter to avoid the various machines and death traps. A few times she ran across inconveniently placed spikes and pits. They were easily flown over, but she supposed they would be suitable obstacles for someone without wings. Especially, now that she thought about it, someone who had a tendency to run really fast without looking where he was going. This "Eggman" was too much of a specialist.

Level design aside, she made it out of the building and scampered into the temple proper. It was about the same as any other temple, but with a colorful flair that she assumed was influence from the surrounding region. She ducked past a very big, ominous looking guard and into the twisting halls. The bright aura led her further and further in, and Pretzel felt a growing dread the farther she went (as opposed to her usual, more general sense of dread).

She reached the door to the inner room. Ah. Of _course_ it would be here. She slipped under and—

Oh. Oh, it was _bright._

Pretzel scrambled back, pressing herself against the door in a futile attempt to hide. Fire roared over her, white hot and blinding. She didn't need to imagine the claws closing her around her chest now; they were inches from her face, ready to burn her to shreds in a heartbeat.

She was going to die.

She was dead.

The calm certainty of it gave Pretzel courage enough to move from the door, barely dodging the swipe of the creature's talons. _Phoenix_ , some part of her recognized, which wasn't terribly helpful.

Pretzel brushed past a tapestry and threw it at the Phoenix. It didn't even lift a claw, letting the tapestry burn as soon as it brushed its fiery feathers. Pretzel watched the image of Dark Gaia burn to ash with morbid fascination.

The Phoenix lunged again, and Pretzel darted forward. She pressed against the wall in a futile attempt to get out of its range, then looked up. Doors lined the room as they had in every other temple. Maybe…

Pretzel waited for the Phoenix to lunge again, crouched in front of a door, and at the last second leapt away. The Phoenix shrieked as it was greeted by a blast of icy wind, courtesy of Holoska. It drew its head back, shaking it furiously side to side. Pretzel ran to the next door. Maybe if it got its head far enough through, she could decapitate it somehow.

Unfortunately, the Phoenix was the learning type. It shot one clawed foot out at her, and when she dodged, it was ready with the other. Pretzel screamed as the fire burned at her scales and fur and through to her skin, and a horrible, acrid sizzling smell reached her. She writhed, hissing furiously, helpless as the Phoenix studied her with flaming eyes.

"Down, boy," a smooth voice called, and smoke filled the air. Gloved hands pried Pretzel free, and she gratefully curled into the cool touch. Rouge ducked down, spreading her wings over Pretzel while the Phoenix recovered from the smoke bomb.

"This must be the jailer," Rouge muttered. "Fitting for a princess." She glanced down at Pretzel, frozen with fear and smelling of burning, then up at the quickly recovering Phoenix. "I'll handle it. You take this and go." She pressed something into Pretzel's hand that sparkled with repressed energy. It brushed briefly against her mind, and they each mentally jerked away from each other. This amount of energy wasn't safe. Not with her.

"Go!" Rouge yelled, hovering above her. Pretzel clutched the Chaos Emerald close and took off. The Phoenix swiped at her, but Rouge swooped in and was pinned to the wall for her troubles. Pretzel glanced back, then tightened her grip on the Emerald and kept running. Her ears twitched and something shuddered inside her, but she didn't turn even when Rouge's scream echoed down the hall.


	25. Hotel Epiphany

Sonic, Shadow, and Pretzel peered out the window of their hotel room, watching as a crowd of civilians glared in their general direction. Not moving. Just standing there in the blazing heat, apparently trying to kill Pretzel with their creepy pupilless eyes alone. Sonic knew from experience that if he closed the curtain, they would quickly go back to cheerfully milling about like nothing had happened. He also knew from experience that Shadow would break the curtain rod if he kept opening and closing it repeatedly.

Sonic waved at the crowd. They didn't react. He tapped on the glass. No response. He sighed, resting a chin on his hand. He'd never expected the apocalypse to be so _boring_.

Behind the trio at the window, the door rattled loudly, but with the TV, bed, broken curtain rod, and anything else they could get their hands on shoved against it, they'd have plenty of time to flee if the latest mob got in. He had to give them credit for the two-pronged attack: one mob below in case they tried to jump out the window (and to glare them into oblivion), and another to make sure they didn't go out the door (or get a moment's peace).

"They really hate you," Sonic observed, and Pretzel nodded.

"It does make things more difficult," Shadow observed, turning away from the window so he could lean edgily against the wall. "We are fortunate we can Chaos Control with the one Emerald."

Sonic wriggled uneasily, glancing at the glowing purple emerald. He could _see_ it, it was _right there_ , and yet… he felt _nothing_. "Are you _sure_ the Emeralds are working normally?"

"They were rather weak when this incident began," Shadow admitted. "But they seem to have regained their energy, and the interference from Light Gaia isn't an issue this close to it. All things considered, the Emerald is behaving admirably."

Sonic huffed and folded his arms sulkily. "Purple never liked me, anyway."

Shadow's mouth twitched, but he didn't comment.

"So…" Sonic said after a moment, dropping the topic like he hadn't been desperately trying to reach out, to _feel_ the Emeralds' presence like he always had since the moment he laid eyes on it, glowing merrily like nothing ever happened. "We probably need a plan."

Shadow sighed, turning to face them. He sat down cross-legged on the floor. Sonic would have rejoiced that he was actually starting to drop the edgy facade if he wasn't too busy mentally poking at Purple. "Our group of five is down to three, and we only have one Chaos Emerald. With the doctor tightening security and taking the Emeralds with him to his current base of operations—which we still don't know the location of—and with GUN apparently overrun by the Light Gaia mobs, our options are… limited."

"Limited like aliens invading the planet limited?"

Shadow's mouth did that twitchy thing again. "More limited than that. At least I had more allies then."

They fell quiet again.

"One Chaos Emerald," Sonic muttered, looking at the innocently glowing gem. "And I can't even use it. So much for the going Super plan. Unless you have some magic last-minute ability that could help us?" He looked hopefully at Pretzel.

"Nothing immediately helpful, no. Though if you run into any lasers, call me."

Sonic sighed and flopped on the carpet. "Chaos Emeralds. Never around when you need 'em most."

"Actually, they _always_ seem to be around when you need them."

"Quiet, Shadow."

There was another long, stuffy moment of silence (the AC had been one of the first things the mobs destroyed, curse them). Sonic watched in mute amusement as an idea dawned, slow and glorious, on Shadow's face.

"Do you remember, Sonic, when the Doctor trapped you in that exploding pod?"

Sonic snorted. "No, that _totally_ seems like something I'd forget."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Did you not use a fake Emerald to Chaos Control to safety?"

"I did," Sonic agreed. " _And_ it was my first time using Chaos Control." He added with a smug grin.

"Who made the fake Emerald?"

Sonic blinked. "Tails did. D'ya think…"

"Where is Tails now?" Shadow stood abruptly, reaching for the Chaos Emerald.

"Last I saw him, he was in Apotos." Sonic scrambled to his feet. "But he's under Light Gaia's control."

Shadow scowled, dropping his hand. "Perhaps we could trick him into helping us? Light Gaia seems partial to you."

"Light Gaia's trying to _brainwash_ me," Sonic corrected him. "I wouldn't exactly call that _favoritism_."

"It's… _trying_ to brainwash you?" Shadow said slowly.

"Welll… yeah. Haven't you noticed the random fits of bloodlust?"

"But it _hasn't_ brainwashed you." Shadow started pacing.

"Not completely…" Sonic muttered, trying to follow his train of thought.

"It has brainwashed thousands of people around the world, people as purehearted—"

"Aw, stop, you're making me blush."

"—and even _less_ purehearted than you. Yet you retain at least some amount of control. You still have your true personality, and you are actively rebelling and seeking to stop Light Gaia without any direct repercussions." Shadow stopped in his pacing and frowned at Sonic. "Why?"

Sonic thought about it. His mind traced back to the first time he transformed, how his mind was so fogged with light. He remembered encountering Pretzel, and how the next morning something in him had _resisted_ the light. He had thought it was him, adjusting and getting used to the transformation, but maybe…

"I think it's Pretzel. I'm not sure how… but I think it's Pretzel."

Both hedgehogs looked at their companion.

Pretzel hunched her wings under their scrutiny. She glanced out the window, then seemed to draw something to herself and sat up straight. She took a deep breath.

"In the temple in Holoska, I saw an image of Light Gaia fighting Dark Gaia. It… I believe it stirred up memories." She hesitated, then added, "And my… abilities. I can control shadows. I don't need to breathe. I can even change shape to a certain extent, and I see… auras. The light and dark in people. Your fear makes me stronger, and light and heat make me weaker. When he is under Light Gaia's control, Sonic always attacks _me._ " She looked away. "And… and I woke up when Light Gaia did, with no memories of who or what I was."

There was silence for a moment.

"Sweet Chaos in a lobster trap, how did I not figure this out!?" Sonic howled, grabbing his quills and then wincing as he drew his hands away. He started pacing back and forth, filled with a buzzing, nervous energy. "It's so _obvious_ and yet—" he whipped around, pointing at Pretzel, who jumped back like he was going to shoot her. "You're Dark Gaia! _You_ are Dark Gaia! Gah!" He hit his head against the wall a few times and quickly decided it wasn't worth it.

"Which means you are the one who has been keeping Sonic's mind free," Shadow observed. He knelt down so he was eye to eye with her. Sonic stopped trying to vent his frustration at his own stupidity and focused on the conversation. "Can you do it again?"


	26. In The Cold Light I Live

They waited for night before making their move, which took way longer than it should have. Dark finally fell after 11 pm, and the mobs dispersed with dazed expressions. Sonic, peering over the edge of the roof, gave Shadow a thumbs up. Pretzel, sprawled out in an attempt to beat the heat, wearily climbed to her feet. Shadow, studying maps of Greece and Italy, put down his tablet and picked up the Chaos Emerald.

" _Chaos Control!"_

The city's temple was guarded, of course; evidently, Light Gaia was strong enough now to influence humans too close to the monument made in its honor, even at night. Even Chaos Control-ing directly inside couldn't keep them completely from notice. While Shadow and Pretzel made a break for the portal, Sonic ran interference, sweeping the legs out from under their human pursuers, knocking the stronger one against the wall, and sprinting after his friends through the door to Spagonia. No blood. Never again.

Sun glared off cobbles, and Sonic stumbled, biting down on the scream building in his throat. White hot pain twisted through him. Apparently, the light was tired of playing nice. Gasping for breath, Sonic forced himself to keep running. Shouts and yells erupted around them as they sprinted down the street, and the brainwashed citizens ran at them, waving whatever weapons they could find and screaming bloody murder. Shadow grabbed Pretzel and took hold of Sonic's arm with the same hand, raising the other with the Chaos Emerald.

" _Chaos Control!"_

Reality warped, and for a moment Spagonia and Apotos were tugged together. Then the world sprang apart again, and Sonic fell face forward into the empty street.

Empty?

Sonic leapt to his feet, poised to run, but stopped himself short when there were no shouts of pursuit. He looked around. Apotos was deserted. The white buildings wavered in the heat, empty. The wind whistled down empty roads. Colorful banners and signs declaring some festival or another hung like dead things. The hustle and bustle of the pretty little town was replaced by eerie, stifling stillness.

Now that he knew what he was looking for, Sonic spied the familiar shape of a Light Gaia temple near the shore, standing like a lighthouse. It had an odd red glow to it, and when Sonic turned around, he realized the red glow spread over the whole city like a dome.

"Quarantine," Shadow panted, kneeling on the pavement. "It sent the brainwashed citizens away and put up some kind of energy shield to keep the dark ones out."

"But why?" Sonic demanded. "Why Apotos?"

"This is where it began," Pretzel murmured, sitting up. "Where I woke up. Where you landed."

Shadow nodded, standing slowly. "Perhaps it was hoping to contain you and doesn't know you left. Or perhaps your awakening had some kind of effect it wishes to contain." He gestured at the temple. "The shield made it difficult to Chaos Control here. I would guess it also has something to do with the slashed door."

"That's right," Sonic realized, nodding. "There was a door to Apotos, but it was broken." He kicked at the road. "Maybe it was trying to contain me and Pretzel, just in case we found the temple and the doors."

Shadow snorted. "It certainly failed in that regard. My concern is whether Tails is still here, or if he left with the rest."

Sonic frowned. "Maybe—"

"I can sense someone," Pretzel suddenly interjected. "Two people, moving towards us fast."

Shadow made a hissing sound through his teeth. "A trap. Of course."

"Whaddya wanna bet it's harder to teleport out of here than it was to teleport in?" Sonic said dryly, turning so he and Shadow were back to back. Pretzel leapt into the air and flapped up to perch on a string of colored cloth.

"That way," she called, pointing down the street. Sonic followed her hand and felt his stomach lurch. He'd recognize those fur colors anywhere.

"Shadow," he muttered. "Don't hurt them."

Shadow looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "I… will try."

There was a brief moment before their attackers arrived, a calm before the storm that Sonic spent desperately trying to figure out how to stop his friends without hurting them. But his mind kept circling back to Tails, brainwashed, blue eyes pupilless, snarling like a rabid thing as he— _it_ tried desperately to get at Pretzel. To get at _Dark Gaia._

And Sonic? Sonic had _run._ He had stolen Tails' plane and abandoned him.

He narrowed his eyes and focused on the orange fur. Not this time.

"You take Tails," Shadow said, reading something in his face. "I can handle Amy."

Sonic nodded. The storm broke.

The two hedgehogs leapt apart as a red and gold hammer slammed into the pavement. White stones cracked and caved behind him as Sonic somersaulted away, green eyes intent on Tails.

The fox was flying above him, white-tipped tails stirring the air while his sky-blue eyes watched Sonic with dissonant calm. He drew something from his belt, something that looked suspiciously like a— beams of light brought the banner Pretzel was perched on tumbling down on Sonic's head. Yup, a weapon.

Grunting, Sonic fought to untangle himself from the banner, yelping as another laser burned the orange tip off one of his quills. He _really_ hoped that would be fixed when he detransformed.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled, tugging the banner off his head in time to dodge another blast. He looked up at the fox. Still too high to reach. He looked down at the banner in his hands, and then at the surrounding buildings and decorations. Maybe…

Not wasting another moment thinking about it, Sonic moved, sprinting forwards. He was used to the rapid acceleration now, controlling it so he wouldn't completely outpace Tails. His eyes fastened on a bright string of blue and yellow fabric triangles. He held himself till just the right moment, pushed with his feet and sprang into the air. Another laser grazed his cheek. He grabbed one end of the banner, yanking it free. Momentum swung him along the building's side and into the air. Midflight he tugged the banner completely free and curled.

 _Homing attack, don't fail me now._ Hanging in the air, he centered on Tails, willing the wind to keep him on course. It seemed Light Gaia didn't know him as well as it thought it did, because the brainwashed Tails just stared. His mistake. Sonic shot towards him, uncurling a second before impact to grab his quarry. _Now_ Tails moved, shrieking and snarling and trying to bite him. Sonic managed to wrestle his arms down long enough to wrap him in the banner. The two of them fell from the sky, tumbling over and over until finally they came to a stop in the street.

Sonic stood, still holding the end of the banner. Tails wriggled on the ground, completely tangled in the string. He growled threateningly as Sonic walked over to him.

"Sorry about this, buddy," Sonic muttered, checking that the string would keep him contained. He glanced up to see Shadow dodge Amy's hammer and kick her neatly in the head. She lost her hammer, which was proof enough on its own that she was possessed, and before she could pick it up again Shadow grabbed her arms, dragging her kicking and screaming over to Sonic and Tails.

Sonic raised a brow. "I thought I told you not to hurt them. You could've caved her skull in."

" _She_ was going to cave my skull in. _I_ was being gentle," Shadow retorted.

Sonic rolled his eyes and scanned the rooftops. "Pretzel?"

"Right here," she said at his feet, studying Tails and Amy with narrowed eyes. "They're very bright."

Sonic smiled. "They are. They definitely are."

Pretzel closed her eyes, brow wrinkling with concentration. She spread her wings, and Sonic watched in astonishment as her shadow grew, spreading over Tails and Amy. The light in him hissed and snarled indignantly, but he focused on the cool, dark thing in his head and Pretzel at his feet and Shadow at his side and drove it back.

Amy suddenly stopped struggling. A few moments later, Tails stilled as well.

Pretzel sat back, panting the way cats do. "It wanted them. It wanted them very much."

Sonic nodded and knelt beside Tails. "Tails? Buddy? You okay?"

The fox groaned and sat up. "Sonic? What—" His eyes widened, and he scrambled to his feet. "Light Gaia! It's—"

Sonic raised his hands in a placating gesture. "We know. It's brainwashed half the planet and it's out to kill the rest. We have a plan, but we need your help. Are you alright?"

Tails frowned. "I… I think so. I can't remember what happened. It's all fuzzy and washed out."

Sonic chuckled, trying not to look too relieved. "Probably not much to remember. Do you know what you were doing here in the first place?"

Tails nodded slowly. "I was investigating that weird energy I noticed. There seemed to be some sort of hotspot here." He grinned. "And I was keeping track of you, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." Sonic wrinkled his nose. "I forgot all about going to space."

Tails giggled.

"Tails!" Amy yelped suddenly, jumping to her feet. "There's something—" She blinked, looking around in bewilderment. "What?" Her eyes lit on Sonic, and to his surprise, she grabbed her hammer and dropped into a battle stance. "Tails, look out!"

"Amy, it's me," Sonic raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, stepping back in case she decided to attack.

"Oh! Sonic!" Amy happily put her hammer away and darted over to him. "What happened? The Professor said something bad was happening and that Light Gaia was controlling you— waaaait." She narrowed her eyes at him. "How do I know you're not being controlled by Light Gaia right now?"

"Um." Sonic tried desperately to think of something to prove his identity, but his mind was full of hammers. Fortunately, Shadow beat him to the punch.

"If he was being controlled by Light Gaia, he would not be working against Light Gaia."

"It's true!" Tails chipped in. "I was being controlled by Light Gaia and he fought me!" He glanced down at the streamer binding him. "Uh, speaking of which…"

"Oh, yeah!" Sonic hurriedly started unwrapping him. "Sorry about that."

"No problem." Tails sat up, rubbing his arms. He squinted at Sonic and blinked several times. "Um… Sonic, you're… uh, your…"

"Yeah, I know." Sonic flicked the strange, flame-tipped tail. "Something weird Light Gaia did." He nudged Tails playfully. "Just be glad you didn't get turned into a dog or somethin'."

Tails giggled. "Speaking of which, you look kind of like a cat. But with wings." He frowned. "I wonder why—"

"HEDGECAT!" Pretzel yelled at the loudest volume Sonic had heard from her yet. When they stared at her, she shrugged. "He got to name me, I get to name him. Hedgecat. It makes sense." She added the last part sulkily as she dragged a claw over the stone.

Tails seemed to suddenly become aware of the others present, glancing from Shadow to Pretzel to Amy. He looked up at the red dome around the city, then finally returned his gaze to Sonic. "Did you say something about a plan?"


	27. Skyfall

Sonic took a moment to feel guilty about all the things—laws, property, hearts—they were about to break before Shadow raised his arm.

" _CHAOS SPEAR!"_

The lock promptly became a non-issue. Sonic held the door open while the others trooped inside. Tails and Amy hesitated, looking at the smoking scar on the door.

"I'm sure they'll understand," Sonic assured them.

Inside, Tails quickly forgot his new life of crime and darted around the lab, squealing at all the gadgets. Sonic smiled, watching the fox set up his Miles Electric and pull up his old notes. Tails griped about his younger self's handwriting as he set to work, hooking up the purple Chaos Emerald to various machines and getting together his materials. Sonic tried to help at first, but after fritzing out a monitor with his Light Gaia energy, he retreated to a seat under the air conditioning. Shadow, shockingly, produced a stack of Go Fish cards, and Amy began lecturing Pretzel about the rules, the details of which no one could agree on. When they they tired of that, Amy and Shadow started arguing about how to play poker, and Sonic went off to read a book.

Something like two hours after they arrived, Sonic noticed Pretzel slipping out the door. He glanced around; Amy was chatting animatedly with Shadow as they gathered the supplies Tails needed, which seemed to translate to Amy gestured wildly while Shadow tried to avoid getting whacked in the face and Tails yelled at them to be careful. Sonic smiled and ducked outside.

Athens was as hot as everywhere else in the world right now, according to Tails, and Sonic grimaced as soon as he stepped out of the air conditioning. Fortunately, the laboratory was far enough from the city that the mobs hadn't noticed them yet, and if they did… well, Light Gaia couldn't hack security systems like Tails could.

"Yo, Pretz! Any last thoughts?" He called up to the roof.

Green eyes peered testily down at him. "You mean before we all go on this suicide mission?"

Sonic grinned. "We don't _all_ have to go."

Pretzel sighed and slipped down to join him in the shade. "It's my job."

"Nah," Sonic shook his head, putting his arms behind his head as he looked up at the scorching blue sky. "Pretty sure you're on sick leave." He lowered his gaze to meet her eyes. "And I don't think you deserve to have a job as sucky as that, anyway."

Pretzel snorted. "You're the only one."

A moment passed as Sonic contemplated the sky and Pretzel contemplated her claws.

"I… I thought I would have to fight him." Pretzel admitted after a moment. "Everyone kept saying it. ' _Oh, we need to get Dark Gaia, maybe the two heartless monsters will take each other out, wouldn't that be swell_.'" She deepened her voice in a very bad impression of… someone. Presumably someone they both knew. She looked at her claws again, scratching at the pavement. "I should. Fight him, I mean."

Sonic dropped his arms and considered her for a moment. At last, he shook his head. "We won't force you. _I_ won't force you." She looked up at him, and he returned it with a warm grin. "I'm sure you've realized by now that I'd much rather throw _myself_ at the big scary monster than one of my friends."

Pretzel rolled her eyes. "Arrogance _does_ seem to be one of your defining traits."

"Hey!" Sonic put a hand to his chest with an exaggeratedly wounded expression. "I am _trying_ to have a heart-to-heart here, Ms. Incarnation-of-Darkness."

Pretzel rolled her eyes again. She pricked her ears as the wind gusted briefly over them, closing her eyes as the breeze swept through her fur. It was quickly gone again, but she didn't open her eyes. "I'm glad you were there. When I woke up."

Sonic blinked at her for a moment. "Really? Even with the whole 'being possessed by your worst enemy thing'? Even with how I've repeatedly tried to, y'know, kill you?"

Pretzel shrugged. "It wasn't you, though."

"Maybe it was!" Sonic threw his hands in the air. "I mean, think about it! With Amy and Tails, you broke them free and that was it! They're free! But I've been around you right from the start, and Light Gaia can _still_ completely brainwash me whenever it feels like it!"

"It likes you," Pretzel pointed out. "It tried hard with them, but it's trying harder with you."

Sonic huffed. "And _why_ is that? _Why_ does it like me?"

"It think you're the same, you and it." He winced, but she kept going, opening her eyes to pin him with an icy stare. "And you have your similarities. You have light in you. You like to be the hero, you're arrogant, you believe in doing what's right, you never think things through, you _always_ win and you _never_ know when to quit."

Well, that did sound like him.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "But you know _why_ I hate Light Gaia? Not because of any of that. Why _I_ hate it— well, why I hate it _now_ is because it plays the hero without _earning_ it. It gets praised and worshipped, but it never _does_ anything but what's in its nature. Every time they— we— every time the Gaias wake up, their fighting nearly destroys the world. But has Light Gaia ever tried to stop it? Has it ever tried to call it off or find another way? _No_. Maybe I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure it _starts_ most of the fights. The cycle of rebirth is as much _its_ fault as… as mine." She glanced off to the side before meeting his gaze again. "If it was like you, it would at least _listen_ once in a while."

"Oh. Thanks." Sonic mustered. Then, "I think that's the most I've heard you talk."

" _This_ is something I care about." She huffed tiredly and started back inside, then glanced back. "And for the record… if you're calling me Pretz, then I'm calling you Son." She scampered inside while he spluttered in outrage.

"Rude!" Sonic shouted, then, sure she was out of earshot, snickered to himself. He took a moment longer to appreciate the view (and, admittedly, regain his composure because _wow_ , that was a lot of words) before stepping in after her.

At his work table, Tails was hooking what looked like the Chaos Emerald up to the machines, while an identical Emerald sat on a table nearby. They were almost impossible to tell apart. Probably _were_ impossible to tell apart to anyone who hadn't been around them as long as he had, but when he looked closely at the one in the machine, he got a strange, queasy feeling in his stomach. He started to feel… cold. Like floating in that capsule. Like his first, and so far only, Chaos Control.

Dragging his gaze away from the fake, Sonic once again tried to reach out for the Emerald, the real Emerald, but even with it sitting right in front of him, it felt like it was worlds away. He tried not to sigh and instead forced a smile.

"How's it going, Tails?"

The fox looked up at him. "This Emerald is almost ready. It has the exact same properties as the real one on the surface, but its energy isn't infinite. It'll run out eventually, and it won't be easily recharged." He sighed, rubbing his face. "The thing is, this took me _hours_ to make, and there are still five or six more to go if you want a full set. And it's _exactly_ the same as the purple one. I'm not even sure you _could_ go Super with seven of the same Emerald."

"We're running out of time," Shadow announced helpfully, joining them. "Light Gaia and Eggman are going to make their move, and if we don't leave soon, the mobs will find us and tear us apart. Or the world will burn to ash. Both outcomes are equally likely at this point."

Sonic grimaced. "We need to buy us some time. If we just knew where—" He glanced at the Miles Electric, and a lightbulb went off in his brain. "Tails, when you were brainwashed, you showed me a map. You seemed really determined that I go to this certain place."

Tails blinked at him. "I did?" He grabbed the Miles Electric and tapped at it for a moment, then showed Sonic the same map he had a few days ago. "Did it look like this?"

"Yes! Exactly like that!" Sonic bounced on his heels. "What coordinates are those?"

Tails squinted at it. "Somewhere near Christmas Island. Here, I'll write them down for you."

While he did that, Sonic turned to Shadow. "Do you think you could take me to Spagonia again?"

"I would need a Chaos Emerald to use Chaos Control," Shadow said, glancing at Tails.

Tails frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then shook his head. "I need both if I'm going to make more."

"We'll run, then. Keep at it, Tails. Shadow and I—" Sonic looked at Shadow. "I'm assuming you're alright with the suicidal death mission?"

Shadow shrugged. "There is no point in dragging it out."

"Great! Amy—" The pink hedgehog looked up with nervous excitement. "—you stay and protect Tails. He's going to be busy." She nodded, drawing her hammer out of subspace with a determined expression. "Pretzel, are you alright staying with them, too? To keep their minds free?"

Pretzel cocked her head. "Won't you need me to keep your own mind free?"

Sonic frowned. "I don't know. I'm hoping I've been exposed to your energies enough to last a little while, at least."

Pretzel thought for a moment, then nodded and flew over to land on Sonic's shoulder so she was almost at eye-level with Sonic. "Maybe this will help." She removed the crest with the green eye from her forehead and gave it to Sonic. "Let it's dark energy flow through you or whatever."

Sonic laughed. "Thanks, Pretz."

"You're welcome, Son."

Sonic stuck his tongue out at her and grabbed a very confused Shadow by the arm. "Let's go, Edge McHedge. We've got a world to save."

* * *

Sonic's initial plan had been to take the Tornado to Christmas Island, but when Tails told him that even with the booster engine, it would take _at least_ four hours, he agreed to halve the distance by taking the portal to Adabat. Of course, this meant running to Spagonia, which took forty minutes in itself. Then there was fighting through the mob (thankfully, Shadow could be surprisingly gentle with brainwashed humans) to finally step through the door into Adabat. And _then_ they had to "borrow" a plane (it was a GUN plane, so that was alright) to fly to the coordinates since _apparently_ Shadow's hover skates didn't work so well on water. Sonic tucked that bit of information away for the next time they had a race.

All that aside, Sonic thought they were making pretty good time. They'd found a biplane (Shadow didn't trust Sonic with a jet for _some reason_ , and even with the biplane he wasn't allowed to fly because he "didn't have a license" and "wasn't legally old enough to fly") and would arrive at their destination in an hour. That was just two hours spent traveling, as opposed to four. That was good! They were earning time!

"We are approaching the coordinates," Shadow called over the drone of the engine.

Sonic leaned over the edge of the plane to peer down at the ocean. The water was far lighter than it had been in Greenland, almost the same color as the sky. And below them, fast approaching, was an island he knew better than the back of his hand.

"South Island," he breathed. "Of course."

For a moment, he was entranced by the colors, vibrant green hills and bright blue waterfalls, with sparkling cities tucked between them. It radiated Chaos Energy… and now, light.

The white flared, blinding him, filling his eyes. It surged through him, filled him, and…

" _Sonic!"_

A voice shouted distantly.

" _What are you doing!?"_

It was getting farther away.

" _Control yourself!"_

Farther…

" _We're going to crash!"_

It didn't care.

 _It_ could fly.

Water closed around them, and for a moment Sonic fought for control, gasping for freedom and air alike. The waves tossed him on shore, and Light Gaia thrummed through him, white hot. He could see it, could feel it, it was _there,_ inside and outside and _everywhere_. He scrabbled for control, wheezing, realized his claws were digging into Shadow. He jerked back. Shadow was unconscious, collapsed on the sand. Blood. Blood on the sand. He was breathing, that was good, that was good, wasn't it? Bad. This was bad. Focus.

Sonic grasped at the darkness he knew was there (" _let it's dark energy flow through you" she'd said),_ and for just a minute cold radiated from the crest on his head. He grabbed Shadow and dragged him into a cove, a cove, how did he get there? He felt his head sizzling, ice and fire, and snatched off the crest, tucking it in Shadow's hand before racing out with his heels on fire, everything on fire.

He stumbled, surrounded by bright green grass and bobbing sunflowers. He gasped, clawing at his head, trying to fight it back, trying to resist that blinding light. The thrum increased. It sounded like bird song.

Light Gaia called.

…

It obeyed.


	28. Act 3: Natural

" _I just mean… things are often more than they seem."_

" _You are right about that, at least."_

" _You felt them, didn't you? They're alive. As alive as you or me."_

" _Even if they are, that does not change what they have been used for. What they have done."_

"… _I know. Believe me, I do. They each have their good and their bad. They've_ done _good and bad. But… isn't that part of what makes them alive?"_

" _Perhaps."_

" _I like to think that anyone can become better. Even them."_

" _And that is what makes_ you _better. Don't lose your light. We all need it."_

* * *

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up." —Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, NIV


	29. Fly

"That's three. Four, counting the real one."

Pretzel glanced up to see the fox—Tails, wasn't it?—pausing to wipe the sweat from his brow. The AC was beginning to feel insufficient. She couldn't imagine what it was like outside.

Tails glanced at his little flashy-glowy thing. "Miles Electric", he called it, which seemed like a strange name. Then again, this was coming from the one who let herself be dubbed "Pretzel".

"I thought Shadow would have contacted us by now," Tails muttered, face wrinkled with… concern? Yes, that was it. "They should have arrived hours ago." He flinched as something that sounded very big and very metallic banged loudly against the door, as opposed to the usual thuds of fists, feet, faces, and the occasional pitchfork. "We're running out of time."

Pretzel lashed her tail, glancing at the scratches on the floor. It reminded her of the map everyone had been looking at. Absentmindedly, she brushed a paw over the fur usually hidden by her crest. Hopefully it was helping—

She realized far, far too late what she should have known from the start.

"They're flying straight to Light Gaia." She barked urgently, and Tails yelped as she landed on his shoulder, claws digging into his orange fur. She stared intently into his eyes. "Sonic is going to lose control, if he hasn't already."

Tails sucked in a breath. "Then you need to get to them." He jumped away from the table, and Pretzel flung herself into the air before she fell off. Tails started running around the room, grabbing pieces of equipment. The pink hedgehog—Annie? Army?—leapt to her feet as well, eager to help.

"We need to get to the Tornado." Tails glanced warily at the shaking door. There was a pointed thud to emphasize his point. A chink of light broke through the thick wood.

"I thought you said it would take _hours_ to get there with the Tornado!" Any protested.

"We can't activate the temple without Sonic," Pretzel reminded them.

Tails nodded. "We have to fly. I think I have a prototype engine at Professor Pickle's lab. That should help us get there faster."

Aglet perked up. "Oh! I was helping the Professor, I know where it is! But how are we going to get to Spagonia?" She hefted her hammer uncertainly. "I'd rather not hurt them, if we can help it."

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking," Tails muttered, pacing back and forth. He glanced up at the roof. "Pretzel, you can fly, right?"

"And _I_ use _wings_ to do it." Pretzel muttered, nodding.

Tails sighed, but there was no time to return to their recurring argument (it didn't matter how many big words he used or how confused he made her, flying with his _tails_ was just unnatural. Wings, now _those_ were the way to go.) "There's a loft above us. Amy, I'll fly with you out the window, and Pretzel can follow us with her _wings_."

"Okay!" Amy looked relieved as she put her hammer back in… well, hammerspace. It was almost as bizarre as _flying with your tails_ , but it was also helpful to Pretzel, as Amy had been teaching her how to do it. Much easier than carrying everything in her mouth. Made her jaws ache less. Amy even said Pretzel was a natural, which was a lie, but a lie Pretzel appreciated.

Tails finished gathering his things—he seemed to keep hammerspace in his toolbelt, because there was _no way_ all those noisy tools could fit in those tiny pouches—and climbed up on a shelf, pushing open what seemed to be a door in the roof, presumably leading to this "loft". He climbed up and reached his hand down to pull Amy up. The door shaking was intensifying, and Pretzel flapped up to join them as with a loud _CRACK_ , yet more sunlight was let in. Tails latched the floor-ceiling-door, and they all crouched in the stuffy dark of the loft, holding their breaths. Below, there was a splintering sound and several shouts.

Tails winced. "I hope they don't break anything too valuable," he whispered.

Pretzel shrugged. "They can fix it when they're un-brainwashed."

Tails and Amy exchanged glances before making their way to a grimy window.

"The latch is rusted shut," Tails muttered. He grabbed the window frame and tugged it, growling with effort. Amy joined him, and they both tried to force it open. It didn't budge. Typical.

Hearing the banging on the floor-roof-door thing, Pretzel nudged them aside and grabbed the window frame herself. Like she'd do any better. But hey, being the manifestation of darkness had to count for something, right?

 _BANG_

They all flinched. They'd have company soon. Baring her teeth, Pretzel batted her doubts away, focusing on the growling voice in her head. She dug her claws in and _pulled._ The wood creaked and groaned as she pulled it from the wall. Tails and Amy winced in sync as the glass cracked and the wall above the window splintered.

"If Light Gaia doesn't kill us, the owner will," Tails muttered, crawling out the window. Amy giggled nervously.

"If Light Gaia doesn't kill us, I will personally pay the owner. In blood, if necessary." Pretzel watched as Amy took Tails' hands and jumped off the windowsill. Once the two of them were safely in the air, Pretzel took off after them.

"There!" Tails called, gesturing with his chin over the strangely empty roads and buildings. "The airfield!"

Pretzel squinted into the distance, wincing at the harsh sunlight. "What does it look like?"

"A long strip of pavement with a tower and a lot of airplanes." Tails panted, straining to keep himself and Amy in the air.

"I'll meet you there, then." Pretzel dove away from them before they could argue (and experience told her they _would_ argue, for one reason or another).

One might say that it was rather heroic to fly right towards the mob that wanted to burn her at the sake in order to buy her… friends? In order to buy Tails and Amy some time. But that left out the fact that the mob was a bunch of land-bound humans, and she wasn't actually going to _fight_ them. Just tease them for a bit and then flap away. Her mouth twitched as the mob ran after her in one direction, then trampled each other going in the other. Kind of a let down, actually. Light Gaia didn't seem to be putting much into the brainwashed people anymore, leaving them too dazed with light to actually put much planning into their actions. Of course, that meant Light Gaia was otherwise occupied, which was… good? Probably bad. But right now good.

When Pretzel made it to the airfield, Amy and Tails were debating the ethics of stealing a plane. Rolling her eyes, Pretzel made the decision simpler by grabbing one herself and dragging it out to the strip of pavement thing. Judging from their expressions, this was not normal. Huh. So she had super strength. Would be nice if she'd known that sooner.

Tails got to work on the plane ( _what_ he was doing, she didn't know), while Amy ran down the strip to keep lookout. Pretzel paced next to Tails, glancing up at the sky every so often. The heat was unbearable. She felt like she was going to melt into a puddle.

"Tails!" Amy shouted. "Someone's—"

There was a blast of noise ( _shooting_ , she somehow remembered as the noise shattered her skull), and Pretzel shot under the plane. Tails and Amy flung themselves to the ground, Amy putting her hands over her ears while Tails shouted something at them both. The plane was suddenly riddled in holes and smoke.

Pretzel swallowed. Trying to ignore the erratic beating of her heart and the _bang_ still ringing in her ears, she dragged herself back out into the sunlight. She could see the weird glow of the brainwashed citizens surrounding the airport in a blurry mass. The light seemed sharper now, brighter. Light Gaia was paying attention again. Lovely.

Her ears cleared, and Tails' voice came through, sharp with urgency. "Pretzel! Over here!" She darted over to him, ducked behind a larger plane, and he took the one real and three fake Chaos Emeralds from nowhere. Pretzel put them into her own hammerspace, panic and practice combining into something like efficiency. "Take the Emeralds and get to Sonic at Christmas Island, okay?" The fox pulled something off his belt and pointed it towards the approaching mass with shaking hands. "We'll hold them off!"

Pretzel pushed into the air, but hesitated, hovering above them. "Why—"

"Go! Save Sonic!" Amy yelled, summoning her hammer as the first attackers broke through the airport gate.

Pretzel glanced between the mob and the planes, then nodded. She swooped over their heads, drawing the meager shadows around her so the _shooting_ couldn't hit her, at least not where it was aiming. She hissed as something, accompanied by that _loud loud loud_ noise, grazed her side. Something dark and liquid oozed from her fur in a thin stream. Humans, always coming up with new ways to cause pain. But they didn't hit her wings. She could fly. And that, she reminded herself around the sharp stinging in her side, was good enough.

Out of the airport, Pretzel glanced back to see the crowd chasing her, leaving the trampled gate and smoking planes behind. Good. WIth any luck, by the time she wasn't a viable target, Tails and Amy would have slipped under Light Gaia's thrall again and no longer be seen as threats. It was an odd thing to hope for, but she held to it. There wasn't much else to do.

She rose higher, coasted on the air, and looked down.

The city burned white. More shooting ripped the air.

If only she could stay.

Her heart stuttered in her chest, and for a long moment she was tempted to do just that. Face the mobs, help Tails and Amy. Pretend it was for a noble reason.

But she knew there was no choice. She knew that, whatever she'd been like before, what she was now wouldn't let her leave him to the fire when she'd felt the burning herself, so many times. What she was now _cared_ , what she was now had to _try_ , what she was now was _stupid_ but maybe stupid was better than a monster. Maybe.

The air felt thin, unstable, like she'd fall at a moments notice, like she couldn't breathe. Like claws were around her throat.

Choking on fear, Pretzel turned her wings to the inevitable. The bright light shone on the horizon like it always had, as much a beacon as the sun above her, if not more. She closed her eyes, but the map to it was etched in her heart, a constant pull to her opposite. To claws and fire and burning and blinding light.

She took a breath. And she flew to Light Gaia.


	30. See

Of course, a major flaw in Tails' plan was that Pretzel was _slow._ She flew with all her might, but even the fastest bird couldn't cross the ocean in anything under half a day. And in half a day they would all be dead. Or brainwashed. _She'd_ be dead, certainly, with this blasted _heat_. She was tempted to try swimming, but when she dipped down, heat rolled off the waves and she quickly pulled up again. Stupid Light Gaia. Well… smart, really, to keep her out of her element. The stupid one here was her, thinking she'd get there in time. Thinking she'd be able to stop it.

Something like lightning brushed against her mind, and she jerked violently in the air. What— oh. She waved her hands around for a solid minute until she finally found the emeralds in hammerspace. Her claws jerked back instinctively before she steadied them. Tentatively, she picked one up; the real one, crackling with life and far too dangerous to be near her for long. It glowed calm, sure purple. She took a breath and carefully put it back.

Right. She did have the emeralds, three-fourths fake or not, on her side. And why give up now? Whether she was boiled alive by the ocean or died at Light Gaia's claws, she was doomed either way. Might as well take the chance she'd somehow help Sonic. But that brought her back to the original problem. She'd never get there in time.

She scowled at the ocean below, then blinked. Her shadow flickered black over the waves, made giant by the sun. She remembered the hotel room and the lasers. Maybe… maybe there was something she could do without being there physically?

She tried to will her shadow to stretch, to spread all the way to Christmas Island. For a moment it seemed to grow, seemed to reach, but the further it stretched the more her wings faltered. She barely made it reach a mile before she nearly fell into the ocean from the strain. Hissing, she shook her head and rose into the sky again. Stretching her own shadow wasn't going to work.

What else could she do? Could she use someone _else's_ shadow? She remembered how she had calmed Sonic's aura, how something bright in a way completely different from Light Gaia had brushed against her mind. Colors and feelings she'd never known. Like a window into another life. His life? Hot wind ruffled her fur where her crest had once been.

Forget her own shadow. She focused on his, the jagged silhouette of his quills and the weird pointy thing that was presumably his nose. She focused on the image of her crest on his fur, looking small and odd and dark. An eye an entirely different green than his. Same green as hers. She pretended the eye _was_ hers, was alive, peering out and seeing.

She gasped as the world blurred, and a second view came into focus. With effort she kept flapping even as she looked around with interest. She knew immediately the eye was not with Sonic. No, this person was the dark and cool to Sonic's bright and warm. This was Shadow.

The eye was in his hand, which provided a rather disorienting view of some kind of beach. She was nauseous enough as it was. Fortunately, it was a simple matter to slip from her crest's shadow to, well, Shadow's. The mind and the aura, she noted, were closely connected, and she wove through the dark red warning spines with familiarity until she saw through his eyes.

It was strange, not seeing the world in shades of light and dark. There were no auras here, only solid shapes and colors. She wondered, briefly, how Light Gaia saw the world, then tucked the thought away for later.

It took her a moment to realize Shadow's eyes were only partly open, and closing fast. She was trying to figure out how to wake him up when something hissed nearby, and Shadow shot upright. She became intimately acquainted with the agony of a split head. How Shadow managed to stand, she had no idea.

"Good, you're awake."

Shadow's mind recognized the voice and labeled it _Dr. Eggman,_ along with other, less kind names. Pretzel avoided poking at the memories scattered about—she got the feeling he was already going to kill her painfully for being in his mind at all without her snooping around—and focused on this Egg-person who was talking to Shadow.

He was a human. Shaped like an egg. Yeah, that made sense.

"What have you done now, Doctor?" Shadow demanded, eyeing the very big robots behind the human warily as his skull continued to pound threats.

Eggman waved his hand. "Never mind that now! Light Gaia has gotten out of control!"

"And this surprises you?" Shadow crossed his arms.

Eggman somehow managed to visibly roll his eyes while wearing dark glasses. " _Never mind that now._ The main issue here is that we have a common enemy."

" _No._ " Shadow said instantly.

Eggman lowered his eyebrows dangerously. Pretzel made a mental note to get herself some dark glasses, they really seemed to add a whole 'nother level of intimidation. And that sneer of pure, concentrated _contempt_ was a thing of beauty.

"Given that you are working with the _heroes_ now, I would have thought you would be less content with letting the world burn. Guess not much has changed." Shadow shifted uncomfortably, but before he could respond, Eggman continued with a smirk that was at once the mirror and the opposite of Sonic's. "Either way, it doesn't matter. If you _don't_ do as I say… well, you're suffering from a concussion, so you're in no position to fight even if I don't tell you all of Burnbot's capabilities."

Shadow grimaced. He seemed to be preparing to attack anyway, though Pretzel could tell from the pounding all around her presence in his skull that it was a _very bad idea_. Fortunately for both of them, Shadow spotted something behind Eggman and smirked. "Burnbot, Doctor? How… ironic."

Burnbot whirled around, raising its arms to prepare for attack, but it didn't count on the target being its creator. To his credit, Eggman looked less surprised than annoyed by the attack in the moment before he dropped unconscious into the sand. Meanwhile, Burnbot doused the surrounding area in flames (which Shadow hurriedly scrambled away from), but there couldn't be a worse weapon to use on this adversary, as the flames eagerly turned back on the robot that created them. Pretzel marveled as the intricate piece of complex machinery and expert craftsmanship was quickly reduced to a pile of goopy stuff that was once metal but now looked more like ugly grey mud, smoldering in the sand.

Blaze straightened from her attack, smoothing out her overcoat as she watched Eggman for signs of movement. When there were none, she turned to Shadow. "Is Sonic with you?"

"He was," Shadow gestured behind him at the dented form but still recognizable form of a biplane, half buried in the sand. "But Light Gaia took control."

Blaze's eyes narrowed. "Complete control?"

Shadow hesitated, then lifted his hand, showing her Pretzel's eyeball crest. "He attacked me and crashed our plane… but then he dragged me into hiding and gave me…" He squinted at the object. "Pretzel's third eye."

Blaze nodded solemnly, as if that made perfect sense (Pretzel was the one who the eye belonged to and _she_ thought it was weird, why were these people so _calm_?). "Perhaps we can still get him back yet." She looked down at Eggman. "What do we do with the old man?"

Shadow knelt down and studied the heel-shaped ( _or perhaps high heel shaped,_ his brain noted amusedly, much to Pretzel's surprise) imprint on the Doctor's forehead that was fast darkening into a bruise. "Perhaps we can find a use for him. Do you have anything we could bind him with?"

Blaze hesitated, then reached up and pulled off the red band around her hair, letting it fall in a feathery violet spray down her back. "This should do." She helped Shadow get Eggman in a sitting position, then bound his wrists together with the red band. They also placed a rock on his legs (Pretzel was pretty sure that was just them being petty.) Shadow made some adjustments, and then stepped back to let Blaze wake Eggman up.

Pretzel would have to ask Shadow later what burning moustache smelled like. Shame this perspective was limited to sight, sound, and thoughts. It was certainly effective at waking Eggman up.

"Wha—!" Eggman struggled for a moment, then realized he was bound and sneered at his captors. "Oh. It's _you_."

Shadow and Blaze exchanged glances in a wordless conversation. After a moment, Blaze stepped aside, leaving Shadow to interrogate the human.

"Doctor." Shadow greeted him coldly. "What do you know about Light Gaia?"

"It's a creature that has existed almost as long as our world. It's also a massive energy source, comparable to the Chaos Emeralds, so you can see why I wanted it." Eggman shrugged casually.

Pretzel could sense Shadow's surprise at the readiness of the answer, surprise quickly followed by wariness. "Does it have any weaknesses?"

" _Obviously_ ," Eggman sneered. He seemed almost to be looking at Pretzel when he spoke. "It's opposite, Dark Gaia."

"Tell us something we _don't_ know," Shadow growled while Blaze stepped closer, fire flickering around her hands.

Eggman grunted, leaning away slightly from the heat of the flames. "And how could I know what _you_ know?"

Shadow considered him for a moment, then abruptly turned on his heel. He gestured to Blaze, and she followed him out of earshot.

"Even if he knows something we don't, he won't tell us," Shadow murmured.

"Are you sure?" Blaze asked, and they both glanced back at their captive, who was grumbling to himself while attempting to cut his bonds with a rock.

Shadow shook his head. "Neither of us are willing to go to the lengths we'd have to to get him to talk."

After a moment, Blaze sighed. "So what then? We leave him to Light Gaia's mercy?"

Pretzel sensed memories flowing thick and dark through Shadow's mind, memories tainted with the bitter smell of betrayal, manipulation, and guilt. But then another memory, brighter and fresher, abruptly cleared the rest away.

"No. That would be as good as murder." Shadow took something from his hammerspace, which appeared to be… a set of keys?

Blaze looked as confused as Pretzel felt, but evidently she trusted Shadow's judgement, as she simply nodded and motioned for him to lead the way. Shadow smiled slightly, gratefully. It was gone a heartbeat later, but Pretzel noticed the memory being stored away in a small, bright corner of his mind. Seemed it wasn't often he was given that kind of trust.

"Doctor," Shadow announced, striding up to the human with the keys jangling in his hand. "Give us access to your base and I will let you go." When Eggman squinted at him, Shadow added. "The biplane's right there. These are the keys. I'm sure you can figure it out."

"And be quick," Blaze added, glancing behind her. "Light Gaia will be coming for you soon."

After a moment, Eggman grinned. "I'm glad we could reach an agreement," he said, like _he'd_ come up with the deal. "Unbind me, and I'll give you access."

Blaze started to argue, but Shadow cut her off by removing the red band from Eggman's wrists. Eggman backed away from them warily, but when Shadow didn't attack, he nodded.

"You already know the password, Shadow. The keys, if you please."

Shadow grimaced and tossed Eggman the keys. He and Blaze watched as the Doctor pulled the plane out of the sand ( _unfair,_ Pretzel had _just_ discovered she had super strength and already this human was showing her up), wiped away the sand in one sweeping motion, and checked the engine. He shrugged, squeezed into the cockpit, and took off without a backwards glance (and without giving them time to change their minds. Smart human.)

"If you know the password, why did you give him the plane?" Blaze demanded.

"There are more important issues at hand." Shadow said, then added after a beat, "And I placed a tracker on his coat."

"And who will follow the tracker?"

"…I also placed a timed stun device on him."

"You must be fun at hostage negotiations."

They stared at each other blankly for a moment, apparently unable to handle a joke without Sonic around for them to roll their eyes at.

"…how did you get here?" Shadow asked at last.

"The Moray delivered me to Eggman, and I was imprisoned at Chun-nan. After your attack on his base, Eggman transferred me and Rouge to his base here, presumably to be used as hostages. However," Blaze smirked. "he made the mistake of using a _Phoenix_ to guard us. I used my pyrokinesis to free us, and I found this." She showed him what appeared, in the second Pretzel got to see it before Blaze put it away again, to be a purple brick. But sparkly. "Evidently, Eggman had given it a Sol Emerald to increase its strength."

"What happened to Rouge?"

Blaze wrinkled her nose in irritation. "She left. She wouldn't tell me what she was doing."

Shadow nodded. The stiflingly awkward silence returned. Blaze shifted on her feet and glanced behind her, then bent down to pick up her hairband. Shadow flicked some sand off his weird shoes. So this was why they kept Sonic around.

"I believe we are being watched," Shadow announced after what felt like an hour. Blaze nodded and started tying up her hair again, apparently content to leave Shadow to his paranoia.

Shadow took a deep breath. His mind seemed to contract, focusing on… energy? Slowly, painfully, auras came into focus. They weren't auras like the ones Pretzel saw, however; these were alien, less about light and dark as they were about colors and tints and shades and shapes. _Chaos Energy,_ Shadow's mind provided.

He looked down at the crest he still held in his hand, then at his own shadow. "Pretzel?"

Pretzel spent a moment trying to figure out how to respond, then went with _thinking really loudly._

 _Present,_ she thought in his head.

"Where are you currently?" Shadow asked the crest as he started walking. It reminded her of Rouge and how sometimes _she_ paced back and forth, talking to the air. At one point, Rouge had explained that she was actually communicating with a small device attached to her ear, though Pretzel didn't understand how that was any different. At least the air answered sometimes.

 _Flying to Christmas Island,_ Pretzel told him. _Gonna be a while._

Shadow mulled it over. "Perhaps… you should try Chaos Control?"

Pretzel's mind flashed to the Chaos Emeralds in her hammerspace. She remembered Shadow shouting the words, and how the world warped, folding together and then stretching out again.

 _Alright._

She pulled out of Shadow's head and back into her body, which was thankfully still in the air and still headed to Light Gaia. She clumsily reached into hammerspace. The Emerald thrummed in her grasp, casting a dark purple light over her face. Its energy darted over her, setting her fur on end with electricity. This was a bad idea. This was her _only_ idea.

Shaking her head vigorously, Pretzel focused on the purple facets. She stopped flying and hovered, absorbing everything she could about where she was: the shape of the ocean, the way it spread around her, the way her shadow danced on the waves, the specific sea life lurking down below. Then she focused on what she had seen through Shadow, the cut of the palm leaves, the softness of the sand, and the constant rushing of the waves. She imagined those two places being, just for a moment, the same.

"Chaos Control," Pretzel whispered. For a moment, nothing happened. Disappointment sat heavy in her chest. Here she was, Dark Gaia, the living incarnation of all the darkness in the world, and what even a regular hedgehog could do she—

The world twisted, and Pretzel was left scrambling in the sand. She scrambled to tuck the dangerously sparking Emerald away while her eyes darted around her surroundings. No sign of Shadow and Blaze. Great. Alone on a strange island with no idea how to get _anywhere_. Could this day get any worse?

An odd, sing-song laugh greeted her ears, and she turned around slowly. Sonic was standing in a tree above her, grinning and bright eyed. He looked more poised than she'd ever seen him. Perfect balance and posture, no restless twitching or wandering gaze. Completely focused. It was unnatural.

Wait. His eyes didn't have pupils.

His aura was strange, pure white, and not so much his own as an extension of…

Oh, being alone would be _so_ much better.


	31. Hide

The Hedgecat made the same musical laughing sound as before, though now she knew what she was up against, it had a predatory edge, almost like a growl. The thing-that-was-very-much-not-Sonic dropped smoothly into a crouch, orange-tipped tail lashing.

Pretzel knew that pose. She leapt to the side, but wasn't anywhere near fast enough to dodge its spring. Yellow hands pinned her arms. She shrieked as her fur sizzled from its touch, then clamped her jaws shut and lashed out with her tail. The Hedgecat caught it mid-slash, laugh-growling again. Fortunately for Pretzel, that meant both its hands were occupied and its face was… close enough.

She bit it.

The Hedgecat shrieked, throwing Pretzel across the clearing as blood dripped from its muzzle. She slammed into a tree and got to her feet, head throbbing. No time for that. She scrambled up the tree, lunging into the sky with the Hedgecat's claws a heartbeat from her tail. She swung around in the sky to keep the Hedgecat in her sights. It smirked, and she felt her heart drop with dread. That's right. It had—

A sky blue bolt shot towards her, and with a shriek Pretzel folded her wings, dropping out of the way just in time. The Hedgecat turned _far_ more sharply than she thought the laws of physics should allow, eyes fixed on its prey. Pretzel moved to dive again, but the thing was on her in a heartbeat, claws slashing at her wings with ferocious accuracy. She tumbled, screeching, to the dirt, and backed against the tree trunk, hissing and shaking. The Hedgecat landed gracefully. It gave her an almost apologetic smile as it approached with bloody claws, eyes bright and emotionless.

Claws slashed across her face, and she screamed, raising her wings in a protective shield. That lasted for all of five seconds before a practiced kick knocked her away from the trees and sent her sprawling in the sand.

Pain dripped from her wings and down her face and into her eyes. The sun beat relentlessly down on her, casting a halo around the approaching Hedgecat.

The ocean lapped at her back. Her shadow remained as black and impassive as ever.

Pretzel drew herself up.

The Hedgecat cast no shadow.

She swallowed. Closed her eyes.

"Where is Sonic?" She demanded, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"Here," the Hedgecat answered smoothly, tapping its temple. Its voice was alien, yet frighteningly familiar in a way that told her _run run run._

"No." Pretzel raised herself on shivering hind legs, glaring at the Hedegcat challengingly. "You've driven him away."

The Hedgecat shook its head, still smiling. It lashed out a hand, and Pretzel stumbled backwards. It caught her easily, holding her by the neck as it calmly scored its claws down her face. Slowly, slowly, it drew them down her ear, down her forehead and closer and closer to her eye.

"Are you afraid?" Pretzel choked out.

The Hedgecat stopped, taken aback. "Never."

"Is Sonic afraid?"

"...Not anymore."

"I thought _I_ was the liar."

The Hedgecat hissed at her, tightening its grip. So that was what it cared about? Its stupid _honor_? Her fear was stilled by cold anger.

"Is Light Gaia your master?"

The Hedgecat started to answer, stopped, started again, snarled to itself. The hand holding her shook. Its aura rippled and flashed.

"Light Gaia is controlling you," Pretzel spat, and the Hedgecat snarled, shaking its head vigorously. Its claws tightened on her throat. Pretzel grit her teeth and called back to the cold and the dark and the wet. "That makes Light Gaia your enemy. You fight enemies. You _don't_ obey them. You _don't_ submit." She blinked away the drops of blood and glared at it, urging her gaze to pierce through the blackless eyes and find what they were hiding. "It's won. But you keep fighting. It's hopeless. But you keep fighting."

Slowly, the hand uncurled.

"I have no master," a voice whispered hoarsely.

For just a moment, she could see his aura.

Then it whipped around, snarling. Too late. A very heavy shoe hit it in the head, and a very pointy shoe pinned it to the ground. The Hedgecat snarled and thrashed once before its eyes rolled back and it collapsed limply on the ground.

Blaze winced, studying the creature pinned under her feet. "Are we sure that was necessary?"

"Absolutely." Shadow and Pretzel said in unison.

"He has suffered worse blows," Shadow assured her, slinging the Hedgecat over his shoulder with only a slight grimace to speak for his concussion. Fast healing. Where could Pretzel get that?

Blaze snorted. "Sooner or later, his thick skull is going to crack and _I'm_ going to be the one who has to keep his brains in."

"We could take shifts," Pretzel offered, perching on Blaze's shoulder (the one farthest from the Hedgecat).

Blaze smiled, then winced as she saw Pretzel's face. "I am sorry we didn't find you sooner."

"So am I," Pretzel muttered, flicking out her tongue to try and wipe the blood away. Seeing Blaze's expression, she licked her, too. "I'll live. I'm surprised I have blood at all."

" _Is_ that blood?" Shadow asked, stepping away from a keypad. (What was a _keypad_ doing in the middle of… whatever this place was?) He swiped a finger over her face and sniffed at the dark, goopy substance. Then he licked it, earning a disgusted grimace from Blaze. "It doesn't smell or taste like blood."

"You've smelled and tasted blood before?" Blaze asked wryly.

"Yes. I have picked up several vampiric tendencies from Rouge." Shadow said with complete seriousness.

"Sonic's gonna regret missing _that_ ," Pretzel muttered as behind a cluster of bushes, a door slid open. Shadow ushered them inside, and the door slammed closed behind them. Fluorescent lights flickered on (much to Pretzel's irritation), illuminating a steel corridor.

"The deeper we can get, the better," Shadow said, handing the Hedgecat off to Blaze. He skated ahead, tapping at another keypad so the door was open by the time Blaze had arranged Sonic in her arms and caught up with the black hedgehog. Pretzel jumped to Shadow's shoulder, hanging on while he ran ahead again to tap at a screen. Oh joy, more maps.

Pretzel glanced back at Blaze just as the Hedgecat's aura flared. Pretzel tensed, watching it warily. Noticing her reaction, Blaze swiftly dropped the creature and removed her hair band again, binding its ankles together. She grabbed his wrists and pinned them to the ground. Shadow paused in his typing, and they all stayed perfectly still, staring at their prisoner.

Nothing.

"I think—" Pretzel started, then flung her wings over her ears as a screech reverberated through her skull. The cry of an eagle, sharp and vicious and out for blood. "Light Gaia knows," she finished in a small voice, lowering her wings. Blaze and Shadow seemed unaffected by the sound, but they didn't ask questions.

"Take him," Blaze told Shadow, releasing the Hedgecat's wrists and striding back the way they'd come. "I will stall Light Gaia."

"Are you sure? I could—" Blaze interrupted Shadow's argument with a raised hand.

"You know Eggman better. You know _Sonic_ better. Find somewhere away from Light Gaia, and protect them." She glanced at Pretzel. "Both of them. This world needs them." She sprinted off before Shadow could argue further.

The door closed.

 _One down,_ some distant part of Pretzel observed. _Two and a half to go._


	32. Darken

Warning: this chapter contains corpses. Dead corpses. Two of them.

* * *

Sonic woke up in the cold and dark, which was a welcome change from the past few days. He moved to sit up, but his arms wouldn't cooperate. Wriggling, he braced himself against the wall and forced himself upright. He flicked his tail and grimaced. Great. He was still stuck as the… Hedgecat.

He tried again to get his arms to work, and felt a spark of panic when he realized they were trapped behind his back. He writhed, arching his back and flaring his back spines—no back spines. Just wings, stupid, useless wings.

Swallowing, Sonic wriggled around enough to see his hands. They were bound together by a golden ring, and his ankles were tied, too, by some sort of thick red band. It reminded him of…

His heart jumped and sank in one nauseating beat. Blaze. Had she tied him up, then? His eyes widened. Had she been brainwashed? Was she under Light Gaia's control right now!?

He glimpsed the strange tail again and sagged. Well, that would make two of them.

He tried to look at his hands again, see if he could use his claws—and his heart stopped altogether. His hands were covered in black stains. His mind, which hated him, immediately jumped back to the Moray, its pained screech echoing off the ice and blood clouding the water…

A pained scream echoing from far away as something like blood poured over his claws…

He shivered. That explained why he was tied up, at least. Good on them for being smart about this. Probably should have done it earlier.

Despite himself, he kicked out with his legs, and blinked as he recognized a golden glint on his ankles, above the red band. Limiter rings. That must be what was binding his wrists, too. At least Shadow was alive. Probably.

He waited a moment, hoping someone would come and at least explain what had happened. When that failed to happen, he peered into the darkness fruitlessly. "Hello? Anyone?"

His voice echoed back to him, hoarse and uncertain and unfamiliar.

His heart pounded in his ears like he was running for his life, not just sitting in a room. He should be glad he was in here, not out there endangering his friends. He should be glad.

His head hurt.

He tried to swallow around the tightness in his chest. He struggled again, reaching with his claws for the ring. He nicked himself instead and hissed in pain.

"HEY! Is anyone here!?"

No answer. His eyes darted around, seeking anything. He spotted a glimmer. A Chaos Emerald? His mind reach for it instinctively, and he jerked back in shock when it reached back, banging his head against the wall in the process. Fake fake fake. His stomach churned and he mentally tried to shove the thing away.

Something flicked against his side, and he yelped, jerking away. Fear beat a staccato rhythm against his ribs.

Footsteps clacked nearby. Light flooded the room, and Sonic winced at the sudden brightness. A familiar silhouette stepped in front of the light source.

"Relax. None of us are going to be here long." Shadow said, and tossed Tails' corpse at his feet.

What the heck what the heck what the heck what the heck

Sonic jerked his head away from—that thing, that wasn't Tails, that couldn't be Tails, Tails was in Spagonia with Pretzel but Pretzel was here and he'd killed her what was happening what was happening _what had he done_?

"It'll be quick," Shadow said, taking the _wrong wrong wrong_ Emerald and setting it _way too close_ to Sonic. Shadow kicked aside—ohhh that looked like Amy but it was most certainly not Amy because that wasn't right that wasn't right _none of this was right_. "Painful, judging by the way everyone else went out, but quick." Two more fake Chaos Emeralds, and now they surrounded Sonic in a semicircle. _Trapped trapped trapped trapped_ was all his brain would provide. The room was spinning.

The bindings were gone. Sonic was standing and holding Shadow by the throat.

"Get it over with," Shadow said flatly.

 _No._

 _No._

 _No._

He reached. Scrabbled. He couldn't. He wouldn't. There had to be something.

 _Light Gaia can't win._

 _You can't let it win._

 _And when it wins_

 _And it_ will _win_

 _You keep fighting._

He grasped for straws. Three answered him. Dusky purple light filled the night and watched impassively as he screamed. _False fake wrong_ energy flooded him. A cold river washed away the white flames, drove the light from him and left him in the strange darkness.

He screamed, silently, as his body twisted and shifted. Blue fur darkened, darkened to his usual shade and darkened further. Tan and yellow faded to ashy grey. His quills turned up, lengthened and sharpened like forks of black lightning. Icy calm fell over him in a protective white film, distancing him from the pain and leaving only cold fury.

The world looked very far away indeed.


	33. Counter

A bolt of black lightning shot towards the sun.

Sonic paused in midair, assessing the situation. His opponent hovered over South Island, waves of heat rolling off it in every direction, yet never touching the hedgehog hovering above. Below it, green hills had been turned ashy grey. Trees jabbed out of the ground like burnt matchsticks. Grass yet grew outside of Light Gaia's radius and the skies burned clear and merry above, but all the colors were faded to sharp, crisp greys by the white film over his eyes. Everything was cool and clear and dark, the opposite of how he had felt for so long. The world was distant, seen through a screen; _he_ was distant, hidden and protected by dark energy and cold rage. Out of Light Gaia's reach.

Speaking of which, Light Gaia was, interestingly, a bird. A bird almost 50 ft tall and crackling with light energy, granted, but still unmistakably avian. It was a massive eagle fourteen times Sonic's height, with a sharp golden beak and keen bronze eyes. Gold-tipped white feathers rose like a crown on its head, joined by wide, pointed ears. More feathers lined its underbelly and made up its tails. On its chest was a cracked mint green gem, and from the gem sprouted crystalline lime wings, flapping rapidly as it hovered above the island. Its talons alone were four times longer than he was tall.

It hadn't noticed him yet. After all, there was no need to be alert when you had the sun itself on your side, and all its attention was focused on the figure held in its claws: a lilac cat, slumped forward and seemingly unconscious, but with a pained scowl fixed on her face and her hands clenched into fists. White energy surrounded her, prodding at the resistant violet aura. Black burns patched her face.

Sonic's mouth curled.

Bronze eyes snapped to him then, and the eagle shrieked in fury to see its favorite so corrupted. Sonic didn't give it time to return to its latest project. He shot into the sky and then down, slamming into Light Gaia at full speed. The creature shrieked, stumbling briefly, and dropped its prey as its white energy turned on its attacker. For a split second there was the choice of catching the falling figure or attacking Light Gaia while it was off guard. Not much of a choice.

Sonic set Blaze in the grass and took off again, not giving himself time to check her injuries. No time for hope. The black blur shot into Light Gaia again, but this time it was ready. It flung out its wings, and a pale green shield sent Sonic tumbling backwards. He regained his balance, calculated, and moved. He flew into Light Gaia before it could see him, and it jerked its head around a heartbeat too slow. The creature shrieked as blade sharp quills sliced its ear. Sonic darted away again, watching as it shook its head wildly, screaming again as it flattened its ears protectively. Interesting.

Switching tactics, Sonic darted past it, dodging a claw swipe and twirling around to swipe his arm through the air in his opponent's direction. A wave of dark violet energy shot from his hand and cut through Light Gaia's other ear. Its scream shook the island.

Sonic floated impassively in the air, Light Gaia snarling below him. Its white energy continued to reach for him like desperate hands. Its snarling quieted. It cocked its head, studying him with narrowed eyes.

Sonic tensed.

The great bird shot towards him, and he darted away. It turned like a hummingbird despite its size, and they danced across the sky, black lightning and white comet. A hiss of fire was all the warning Sonic got before he was hit from behind with a bolt of light. A cauterized gash on his side and his cheek were his reward for carelessness.

Spinning in the air, he swept his hand again, and Light Gaia shrieked as dark energy cut its wing. It flapped erratically for a moment more before landing on the ground. It crouched, tucking its wings against itself. Sonic hovered above it, weighing the chances of a trap. Light Gaia's eyes went pure white.

The sky shook.

Some weakened and buried yet still deeply ingrained part of Sonic, a part he'd thought he'd lost, cried out in fury and pain and _wrongness_ , and instinctively he looked for familiar lights. Why, he did not know. But something… something was terribly wrong. Something was… coming.

Sonic darted up just as a chunk of stone shot past him, twisting through the air as more followed it. Pieces of earth rained down on his head. He shot away from Light Gaia, turning to see the new threat in full.

The Gaia Temples. They were here, in all their ancient immovability, floating around Light Gaia. And those lights… Realization shot through his heart. The Chaos Emeralds. They were tied to the temple, and through the temples, Light Gaia was _using_ them. That same jolt of _wrongness_ stabbed through him again.

Stone that hadn't moved in centuries shifted and broke apart and came together again, forming jagged armor around Light Gaia, golden light shining through the seams. Energy crackled from the Chaos Emeralds, feeding the flames. For only a moment it was encased in stone like an ancient cocoon, but then the temples burst into dust with a blast of fire, turning what was left of the island to ash. Sonic cried out at the heat breaking through his protection and the light burning through his screen, futilely trying to shield his face.

Slowly, he lowered his arm and blinked his eyes. The air rippled with heat as Light Gaia uncurled its new form. A new pair of taloned arms had sprouted from it shoulders, joined by a second pair of wings, these feathered and flaming, eclipsing the now paltry looking original pair. Two new pairs of ears had sprouted as well, and its tail was now more whip than fan. Glowing orange had wiped out the whites of its eyes. Its feathers had brightened to a fierce scarlet, edged with shining gold and white. The gem on its chest was no longer cracked, and the green had been clouded with white. Unbearable heat crackled the air around it.

It looked up, and he could have sworn it grinned.

Sonic shuddered in the air. He could feel the dragging in his limbs and the burning in his skin that warned him his transformation was going to wear off soon. He hissed at his waning energy. No. He was going to keep fighting. He _had_ to.

The dark form wavered.

Light Gaia _roared._

* * *

One would think that someone who was, by all accounts, _the living incarnation of all things evil and dark_ would be just fine with manipulating the emotions of some guy she met a few days ago. One would think this being of pure malevolence would feel she was actually being rather _nice_ , considering she did it to _save the world_ and not just for kicks like a proper monster would.

One would be wrong.

Perhaps Dark Gaia would have thought it was pretty great, driving Sonic to the brink of despair so he'd be freed from Light Gaia's brainwashing. And he even got a cool transformation out of it! Everyone wins!

But though Pretzel was Dark Gaia, Dark Gaia was also now Pretzel. And Pretzel, unfortunately, had developed _morals_ somewhere along the way. Forcing someone already miserable to face their worst fears in the worst way possible just so they would go _fight the sun_? That felt undeniably _wrong_. And her newfound conscience was very upset about it. She was upset about a lot of things, actually. And she wasn't the only one.

"Where _were_ you!?" Blaze shouted, shoving Rouge with barely restrained anger. "Light Gaia is about to destroy your world, and you left to put your _makeup on_!?" Pretzel cringed, watching Blaze's still white-tinged aura warily. This wasn't the time to go stoking flames.

Rouge was clearly trying to keep up her calm, uncaring demeanor, but Pretzel could tell that beneath the plastic smile, she was as tired and stressed as the rest of them. "I was making some calls, _alright,_ princess?"

Hesitantly, Pretzel slipped up behind Blaze and butted her head against her leg, surreptitiously sweeping her tail through Blaze's shadow. The white edge to her fire faded, and the cat sighed, rubbing her forehead wearily before pulling her hand away with a grimace upon touching her burns. Pretzel huffed a relieved breath as the flames cooled. Using her powers to get everyone to focus, now _that_ was something she could get behind.

"I'm just glad you are both alright," Shadow said with rare sincerity. "I am… surprised you lasted so long against Light Gaia, Blaze."

Blaze grimaced. "'Lasted' is a strong word. Light Gaia attempted to consume my mind. The Sol Emerald helped me resist, but if it hadn't dropped me when it did, I fear I would have fallen as Sonic did." She glanced at Rouge and chewed her lip before extending her hand. "I apologize for being harsh, Rouge. Thank you for pulling me to safety."

Rouge folded her arms for a moment, then sighed and shook Blaze's hand with a tired smile. "And I'm sorry I didn't explain to you. It was important, I promise." She looked at Shadow. "Now that's out of the way, mind explaining what's going on up there?"

They all cringed as Light Gaia shrieked again. Their hiding place at the bottom of a former waterfall may have protected them from its waves of fire for now, but it was only a matter of time.

"After you were captured, we went to Tails so he could make fake Chaos Emeralds," Shadow explained rapidly. "Sonic and I came here to stall Light Gaia, and it took control of him." He glanced at Pretzel, who focused very intently on her claws. "Pretzel… freed him, somehow, and he transformed into a… Dark Super Form."

Pretzel snorted, remembering how the moment a transformed Sonic had left, Shadow had declared him to be "Dark Super Sonic", as if he _hadn't_ just made that up on the spot.

"He seems to be fighting Light Gaia," Shadow concluded.

"Is he winning?" Rouge asked, raising an eyebrow.

Something big and possibly made of stone flew through the air over their heads. Blaze leapt up after it immediately, with Shadow close behind her. Rouge picked up Pretzel (she'd have to give her the memo about the whole "Dark Gaia" thing later) and flew after them, landing when she saw them crouched behind a smaller ledge. Pretzel dropped gratefully to the tiles that seemed to pave everywhere on this part of the island. Rouge knelt beside Blaze and Shadow. They were just in time, as another ring of fire rippled over the island, singeing the tops of their ears and earning a yelp from Rouge.

After a few minutes without any more fire, Pretzel risked peeking over the ledge. _Something_ twinged in what she supposed was her heart as she took in the damage. The tiles were baked red and cracking from the heat. Burning tree stumps and ashen grass were broken up by evaporated water channels and ashen structures. She saw what appeared to be a giant loop-de-loop, fallen over and coated in black cinders. She felt sick. This… this _wasn't right._

Pretzel forced her gaze away from the destruction and up to the battle. Her eyes focused on a bright, burning figure, and her heart stopped. She dropped to the ground, shivering, and squeezed her eyes shut. _Like that would help. Like closing her eyes would stop Light Gaia—_

That was Light Gaia.

That was _Light Gaia,_ right up there. It could _see her,_ probably already saw her. She was so, so much smaller than it. There would be no choking, no prolonged battle. It could step on her and she'd be gone.

"Something's wrong," Shadow shifted beside her, sounding tense.

Many, _many_ things were wrong, but Pretzel forced herself to look up anyway. She focused on the black speck facing down Light Gaia, and understood what Shadow meant immediately. She could _see_ him. When Sonic had left, he had hardly been a blur. He'd blasted out of the shelter before Pretzel could even register the transformation. But now he was staying still, almost _shaking_ in the air. Even when he moved to dodge Light Gaia's attacks (did it have _lasers_ she couldn't fight _lasers_ that was just unfair!), they could all clearly see him. And so could Light Gaia, catching him in its claws and throwing him away again. Pretzel was sickeningly reminded of her fight (if you could even call it that) with the Hedgecat, and she tried to press herself even lower into the ground.

"The transformation is wearing off," Shadow realized.

"I need to help him," Blaze growled, vaulting over the ledge.

"Wait!" Shadow jumped after her and grabbed her arm. She hissed, trying to jerk away from him, but he didn't let go, fixing her with a hard stare until she met his gaze, burning yellow against steely red. "You won't fare any better against it then you did before."

"At least I can _try_!" Blaze shot back. "I'm not leaving him alone up there!"

"You won't be able to help him!"

"He's going to die!"

" _You're_ going to die!"

"We're _all_ going to die, so we might as well go out doing something that matters!"

They stared each other down, Shadow's quills bristling and Blaze's tail lashing.

Rouge propped her chin on her hand, watching the argument with an exhausted expression. "What a way to go out."

Pretzel swallowed. She glanced from Rouge to Blaze to Shadow and then down at her claws. Her shadow wavered on the blistered tiles, all the blacker for Light Gaia's presence.

She couldn't fight Light Gaia.

She couldn't let them die.

She didn't want to face him.

She didn't want to die.

Slowly, slowly, she crept over the ledge and down the path. Ashy stems crumbled under her feet. She crawled, trembling, past Blaze and Shadow as they tried to come up with a plan. She inched past the strange loop-de-loop. She slithered forward, stopped, swallowed hard, made herself keep going.

She could feel the claws on her chest. She could feel the fire searing her heart. She didn't want to die.

She knew, somehow, that she thrived on negative emotions, like fear and anger and sorrow and hate, that they gave her strength in someway, as twisted as that was. She'd felt it when Sonic went Dark, and even before that, during long nights spent in fear and helpless anger, and in the reverse, weak days surrounded by burning, blistering, brainwashed positivity. But it was one thing to absorb the fear of the masses who hated her; it was another to feel that terror rattling in her chest.

Her claws dug into the dirt. Light Gaia would kill Sonic, or its light would consume his. She wasn't sure which was worse. And when it was done with him, it would turn on her.

Maybe she could run.

She tried to remove her claws from the dirt, to flee, but they wouldn't budge. She couldn't move, paralyzed, choking so far underground the depth couldn't even be measured, the entire Earth pressing her down.

A sunflower drooped before her, blackened by Light Gaia's flames.

Blackened.

Dead.

Her claws unhooked from the dirt. The flower was dead. Light Gaia had… killed it.

That strange something twinged in her chest again, a dark rage lapping into her like ocean waves. Something truly ancient, older even than their petty rivalry.

Killed it. _Killed_ it.

That wasn't right.

 _That wasn't right._

 _That wasn't RIGHT._

That… couldn't stand. She couldn't _let_ that stand. Light Gaia was _killing_. Light Gaia was _destroying_. _That was not right._

She was strengthened by fear. She was strengthened by _anger._ And she was strengthened by _hate_.

She drew on it, on buried bitterness and fresh hurt. She thought of a laughing smile and an insistence that she was a _friend_ like it was a fact of the universe, and then the same smile turned into something alien and cruel. She thought of ordinary people turned against ordinary people. She thought of the smell of burning and Rouge's scream echoing down the hall. She thought of Blaze, small in Light Gaia's claws, howling in fury as Light Gaia, cold and careless, stripped away everything that was _her_.

The tide was coming in.

She… _hated_ Light Gaia. She _hated_ how it was all beautiful light and angel wings, warmth and purity, coaxing good people in like a chocolate-scented flower. She _hated_ how it swallowed up the good and the kind and consumed everything that made them them, twisted their caring into hate and their innocence into self-righteousness. She _hated_ how it left anyone who didn't meet its standards and fit the quota to rot; no, worse, how it did everything to _hurt_ them and _wound_ them and make them feel like pieces of trash, sicking brainwashed fathers and mothers and sons and daughters on their own family, and then it killed them without remorse, laughing at how it has purged the world of "evil". She _hated_ how it played the good guy, pretended like it was saving the world, worshipped by people it would just as soon destroy because Light Gaia answers to no one.

She hated how it always won.

The universe was meant to be balanced. Nothing was so powerful it could not be taken down. The earth to the air, the air to the fire, the fire to the water, the water to the earth. Everything has its opposite, has something greater and something lesser.

Everything answers to something.

And Light Gaia would answer to _her_.

The tide was coming, and it filled her and froze, ice so cold it burned. It escaped her mouth with a crackling hiss, the only sound she made. She held deathly still, silent and unseen, watching Light Gaia dance and play with Sonic, always _moving_ and _laughing_ and _burning_. Opposite.

She knew there was goodness and truth and love because she had seen Sonic and his friends, had seen their laughter and their kindness and their caring. And she knew Light Gaia left no room for these things because as it scoured away the darkness, it scoured away the reasons these things mattered.

She moved, smooth and slow and silent. She drew on the shadows, drew on all the darkness around her. She drew on Sonic's darting despair, on Shadow's helpless rage, on Rouge's shattered hopes, on Blaze's quiet guilt, and on her own black, cold hate. She drew on the screeching fear felt all around the world, the impotent anger and grief and a million other things too tangled up and murky to name as friends turned on friends and family was left wondering why they weren't good enough to be taken. She took it all, the darkness like a tidal wave, and let it fill her. And she grew.

She drew on the shadows, except this time they were not hiding her, they _were_ her, as solid and real or as flickering and impotent as the mind believed. Her points grew long and her wings wide and her eyes remained sharp points of ice, green as the world Light Gaia was destroying.

Dark Gaia spread her wings, and the world froze.


	34. Grey

Heat burned all around him, through his fur and into his blood. Hissing in pain, Sonic darted away from Light Gaia's claws, sweeping his arm behind him to send a wave of dark energy at it. The wave wavered and flickered, more like a weak ripple. Light Gaia didn't even notice. The energy was seeping out of him, dragging at his movements and draining his focus.

Gritting his teeth, Sonic gathered his last dregs of energy. He couldn't lose. He wouldn't—

Light Gaia's tail whipped through the air. He tried to dodge. _Not fast enough._ White fire cut through him, and the transformation vanished, leaving nothing, less than nothing. The world was suddenly too close, yet at the same time, hazy and distant. He struggled to stay alert for a moment more.

His eyes slipped closed.

Sonic fell.

The light rushed eagerly to catch him and consume him. Light Gaia's call battled the wind in his ears. Its message came clearer and brighter and warmer than ever, confident in its strength and his weakness. It would purify him, it said. It would remove the dark and the bad and make him perfect.

 _YOU'RE bad,_ Sonic shot back.

Light Gaia seemed personally offended by this. _**I am good.**_

Oh, so it talked now? _You hurt people._

 _ **Bad people.**_

 _Good people too._ Time was acting funny, or maybe it was gravity. He was still falling, yet never coming close to the ground.

 _ **No people are good.**_

 _Yeah. You aren't good._ Was it playing with him, or genuinely trying to convince him?

 _ **I am good!**_

 _Hurting people isn't good. Stealing isn't good._

 _ **I do not steal!**_ It sounded like a petulant child.

 _You steal people's freedom._

 _ **Do not!**_

Maybe arguing with it when it was apparently the only thing keeping him from falling to his death was a bad idea. Sonic couldn't say he cared. _You steal choice._

 _ **Choice is bad.**_

 _You are bad._ Oh, he was actually moving again.

 _ **I am LIGHT!**_

 _Light and bad aren't mutually exclusive._ The ground was getting closer now.

 _ **Dark is bad. Light is good.**_

Pretzel, talking him through his fear on a mission she didn't even believe in. Shadow, defying his orders because he believed in second chances. Rouge, staying behind to fight the Phoenix so the world might have a chance.

Sonic smirked. _Lying is bad._

 _ **You are bad,**_ Light Gaia spat, withdrawing to let the ground break him to pieces.

 _ **Oh, yes,**_ joined a third voice, cool and dripping with sarcasm. _**The one who's fighting for the freedom of the world is the**_ **bad guy.**

The shadows wrapped around Sonic, shielding him from the impact. They dropped him gently on the ground. He tried to get to his feet, but didn't have the energy and instead knelt in the ashes. A silhouette fell over him, long and deep and dark as the ocean. He looked up to see the new challenger. A huge grin split his face.

 **He** _**is not "bad",**_ Dark Gaia hissed, looking Light Gaia in the eye. _**But**_ **I** _**might be.**_

She was raised on her hind legs, wings spread and teeth bared. Her fur had blackened to dusk, an imperfect near-black like a Coke bottle in a desert town. Her flared wings almost looked like an additional pair of arms. Her back was armored with fin-like scales that matched the violet mane on her head and the neon blue veins of her wings, and her third eye was fixed and active in her forehead, and another pair of eyes were below her first.

She was bigger, and darker, and she looked more like the monster in the pictures, but she wasn't quite there yet. She was twice his height, but that wasn't much at all compared to Light Gaia. She wasn't fully transformed; for that, Sonic knew (like he knew how to fly when the Emeralds transformed him and how to land right before the transformation left) that she would need the energy Light Gaia and Eggman had stolen. He thought, briefly, of what it would mean if she did reach her full form, but dismissed the thought easily.

Right now, she would need his help.

She glanced down at him, cold and calculating, and for a moment he identified with the mice people fed to pythons. But the next moment he knew she was still Pretzel as she hesitated, glanced again at Light Gaia, rolled her eyes and dropped to all fours.

Light Gaia shrieked, recovering from its surprise, and pounced with talons outspread. It rebounded off a shield of shadows and settled, for the moment, with circling ominously overhead.

"It'll break through soon," Sonic observed. He tried again to stand, but again his legs betrayed him. Where had all the energy of just minutes ago gone?

"The fake Emeralds," Pretzel told him. He wasn't sure if she'd read his thoughts or was just guessing. Either was equally likely. "You used their negative energies to transform. Positive energy repelled it. I'm surprised you held onto the transformation as long as you did." She moved her head closer to him, and he was suddenly struck by the size difference between them now. Maybe this was how Pretzel had felt around him before.

She cocked her head, ears twisting like she was listening to some distant song. "They still have a little more to give, if you'll take it."

Sonic winced as Light Gaia rammed against the shield again. "That would probably be good, yeah."

Pretzel gave him a considering look, tail twitching. "I can help," she said at last. "But it won't be _nice_."

Sonic looked up at Light Gaia circling overhead, screaming threats, then at Dark Gaia coiled around him, concerned that her help won't be " _nice_ ". His mouth quirked, but he repressed any amusement for the time being. "If it'll help me help you, then go for it."

Pretzel nodded and spread her wing. Sonic was entranced by her shadow as it slipped over his own. He gasped at the sudden chill of dark energy brushing his mind, then relaxed as it did not force its way in, but waited, calm and patient, the exact opposite of the white light that still echoed in invisible burns. Closing his eyes, Sonic focused. He drew on the fake Emeralds, nauseating though it was. He looked, for once, at the darkness, the despair and sorrow and anger. Slowly, he let the dark water in. He did not let it control him; he held it carefully, away from his heart, and shaped it into a weapon.

The transformation was painful; it had to be, this unnatural shifting in his body. He did not scream. He was sick of screaming. He was sick of not being in control. He was sick of not trusting himself. He was sick of Light Gaia and its lies.

"Okay." He said at last, standing. His voice sounded ever so slightly off. He glanced briefly at himself—murky blue quills turned up in sharp violet points, with matching spikes of fur on his wrists and ankles, claws more canine than they had been when Light Gaia transformed him—before looking at Pretzel. "Let's go."

Pretzel grinned, displaying a wide array of very sharp teeth. "This should be fun."


	35. Challenge

The shield dropped.

The fire broke.

And the darkness was let loose.

Light Gaia was on them in an instant, diving for Pretzel with claws outstretched. She knew it was coming but barely dodged the blazing talons all the same. Light Gaia turned on her again, but was distracted by Sonic ramming into it from behind. Realizing it was outnumbered, it pumped its wings, rising into the sky with a gust of hot air. Pretzel flinched away from the heat.

 _Fight, don't run,_ she reminded herself, trying to ignore every instinct telling her to just slither in the ocean and let the world burn.

The ocean.

Hmm.

Pushing off the ground, Pretzel rose high enough to get a good view of the island. There was a fair distance from where they were to the ocean, but with them flying and Light Gaia as big as it was…

 _ **Sonic,**_ she called. She wasn't sure if she was getting better at telepathy or if it was just because of the transformation. He didn't look at her, but she knew he heard. _**We need to drive it into the ocean.**_

Sonic gave the slightest of nods before shooting towards Light Gaia again. It whipped around and slashed at him, but at the second-to-last second (the last would be too late, even for him) Sonic twisted away. Light Gaia's claws grazed his fur as he whirled in midair, gesturing with his arm. A spear of dark violet energy materialized and struck his opponent between two heartbeats.

Sonic blinked, looking taken aback.

Light Gaia took advantage of his confusion to send return fire in a beam of white light. Sonic darted away. Light Gaia's gaze, hotter than the sun burning above them, focused on Pretzel.

She drew the shadows tighter to her and forced herself not to run. Light Gaia charged, and she flung the darkness out in a shield. It lasted only a few seconds under Light Gaia's onslaught, valuable seconds as she dove out of its way. Valuable, but not enough. Light Gaia's back claws caught her tail, and as she writhed, its front talons clasped around her throat. Pain sizzled over her skin, fierce and unrelenting. She couldn't scream, too busy trying not to melt away.

It was as it always had been. The claws digging into her throat, the claws digging into her chest. She scrabbled with her claws, trying to scratch it despite the burning. Nowhere to run. She lashed her tail, slashing through its feathers, but it didn't react, orange eyes burning into hers. It would burn and burn until she gave up, and this time she hadn't even weakened it enough for it to go to the core. She hissed and bit. Light Gaia seemed to laugh. Perhaps it would burn her until it grew tired, and then they would sleep. Her wings beat helplessly. Would the world last that long? Maybe—

A dark blur hit Light Gaia at the speed of sound. It wasn't enough to knock it away, yet it hissed and turned away from her, flattening its ears and swiping at Sonic with one set of talons while keeping the others on Pretzel's throat.

Pretzel stopped struggling. When Sonic didn't attack again, Light Gaia turned its eyes to her, ears pricked curiously. She gave it a minute to revel in its apparent victory before jabbing her tail spike through its two biggest ears. Its scream shattered the sky, and Pretzel slipped from its grip, letting herself drop low to the ground before opening her wings. Her underbelly grazed the grass. She glided towards the pull of the ocean deep and dark, the sun hot on her tail.

Light Gaia surged after her, struggling to stay low with its massive wings. What little plant life remaining on the island was scorched black by its heat. Pretzel winced. She reached the ocean and whirled around, tail trailing into the water. Light Gaia hesitated at the shore, watching her warily. She flared her wings, screeching a challenge.

Before Light Gaia could make up its mind, Sonic slammed into it from behind, and Pretzel grabbed its head— _itburneditburnedaaaaaaahitburned—_ , forcing it into the water.

For once, it was someone _else_ that was sizzling.

Light Gaia _screamed_ , sending waves surging up the shore. It broke free of her grip. Pretzel dove into the water before it could grab her, the cold bringing a temporary relief to her burns. She peered up at Light Gaia, circling Sonic overhead, and heaved a sigh. This could go on for an eternity; she would know. She watched the bubbles rise to the surface. Perfect circles.

She looked up at Light Gaia. Her opposite. It was still lashing out at Sonic, always a heartbeat closer to spearing him. All this fighting, and all they had to show for it was a few missing feathers. Energy couldn't be killed. And Light Gaia wouldn't give up until it was far, far too late.

She looked down at the ocean. Black. Deep. Far, far below the world. Far, far below, where she couldn't hurt anyone. Where they couldn't hurt anyone. Not Light Gaia. Not Dark Gaia. Sleep.

She breathed out again, softly, and marveled at the fact that she didn't really need to breathe at all. Bubbles, perfect circles. Round and unending.

Her heart shuddered in her chest. Over and over again, the earth and the claws and the light choking, choking, choking. Over and over and over and over and over—

She looked up at Sonic, his expression tight and focused on dodging an opponent who for once was nearly as fast as him. She saw Shadow in that face. Tired. It wasn't right. Sonic was meant to be light, not blinding and burning like Light Gaia, but twinkling and warming like the stars. Neither the quiet moon nor the burning sun.

Sonic and Shadow and Rouge and Blaze and Tails and Amy… they deserved choice. They deserved to be all the colors of the spectrum, not washed out black or white. The world belonged to them. Not Light. Not Dark. The Gaias were like children, fighting over something precious and beautiful and breaking it in the process when it wasn't even theirs to have.

She took a moment more to marvel at the intricacies of the ocean's blues before bursting from the water. Light Gaia whipped around to face her, and she held its gaze with broken calm.

Speaking to it was like talking to herself. _**This will never end.**_

Surprisingly, it agreed. _**The little one does not give up.**_ It sounded rather smug about it, how it had brainwashed such a heroic person.

 _ **If we fight longer, he will die.**_

 _ **You can give up.**_

 **You** _ **can give up.**_

Light Gaia laughed in derision at the very thought of _surrender_.

Pretzel stilled her own frustration. _**We will always fight. But**_ **he** _**does not have to.**_

 _ **He will not leave me be. He does not understand.**_

 _ **He understands more than either of us,**_ Pretzel snapped. _**But he is still mortal. Someday, he will die. And then we can fight again. Just… just let him be now. Let them all be. We can continue this in time. We can wait.**_

Light Gaia considered her, eyes keen as always. At last, it folded its wings to land on the shore, claws uncertain in the sand. _**We sleep, then.**_

 _ **We sleep.**_

 _ **The cycle resumes.**_

 _ **Yes.**_

 _ **As it should be.**_

… _ **yes.**_

Pretzel swam slowly out of the water and crouched on the white sand where Light Gaia's shadow should have been. Of course it wasn't there. _She_ was Light Gaia's shadow.

Inhaling one last time, savoring the salty sea air (hot though it may be), she closed her eyes and focused. She focused on all the shadows that extended from her, the dark trails left in her wake, and called them all to her. Sonic was standing on the beach, looking at the Gaias with wary bewilderment. She called the energy from him. No goodbyes needed to be said. It was better this way.

She didn't see if it hurt and she didn't see him detransform. There was no more time.

 _ **It's time to sleep.**_

 _ **As it should be.**_


	36. Understand

"What's going on?"

Sonic glanced up from where he was kneeling in the sand to see Blaze skidding to a stop beside him, her fur still patched with healing burns. Shadow followed close behind, looking at once irritated and concerned. Master of emotions, that Shadow.

"I don't… I don't know," Sonic admitted. He stared in bewilderment at Pretzel and Light Gaia, both crouched on the beach, eyes closed, facing each other.

It was a bizarre sight. Light Gaia was crouched on all four legs with its wings folded and tail tucked like the world's weirdest dog. Pretzel, bigger though she was, was already tiny next to it, and she looked smaller still curled up like she was. Her wings were folded around her, hiding her face. Brow wrinkling with concentration, Sonic reached out for her presence, the energy she had pulled from him moments ago. Nothing. Cautiously, he poked at the deep burn Light Gaia's maelstrom of energy had left in him, a permanent entry point for the white light. He could feel it, faintly, but it was turned away from him, closed off.

It might have been a peaceful scene, but though their energy wasn't in him anymore, he could still sense it, invisible as the wind but just as present and alive. Dark and light energy gathered and swirled around the Gaias, a growing cyclone that would be unleashed any minute— He blinked. The storm wasn't expanding, it was _compacting_ , a tight ball of energy that would surely blow up any minute now and yet…

"They're… locking themselves into the cycle again." Understanding dawned and he tried to scramble to his feet, his exhausted limbs fighting him every step of the way. Blaze grabbed his arm to steady him.

"The cycle? What do you mean?" Her tail lashed as she looked from him to Pretzel and back again.

"They will rest for a century or more," Shadow's eyes narrowed, his fingers twitching and chaos energy stirring restlessly, helplessly. "And then they will resume their fight."

"We can't let Pretzel get locked into that again," Sonic glared at Dark Gaia as if she had personally offended him. "We need to _stop_ Light Gaia, not just _delay it._ "

"How can we stop them?" Shadow said, frowning, because he was just a killjoy like that. "You could barely scratch Light Gaia in your Dark Super Form—" (oh, is _that_ what it was called? Wait, how the heck would Shadow know? Did he just make it up?) "—let alone when you're about to collapse."

"I am not!" Sonic insisted, though his entire body begged to differ. He tugged away from Blaze's grip and nearly fell over.

Shadow smirked, but Blaze raised a hand to stop their argument before it could continue. "Wait." She was staring intently at the purple Sol Emerald in her hand. After a moment, she looked up at them, realization in her yellow eyes. "I have an idea."

Whatever Shadow might think, it was a simple matter for Sonic to run back to Eggman's base ("Hey Rouge!" "Hey, blue. _No_ , you don't need to _nuke the island_ —") and grab the real Chaos Emerald, though leaving his friends alone with Light Gaia made him antsy. Sonic skirted around the shards of what had once been the fake Chaos Emeralds. The real one sat patiently, glowing with familiar light. He was pleasantly surprised when his hand touched its shimmering violet surface and its presence lit up in his mind like it has always been there. It _had_ always been there, it insisted. He just couldn't see it through the white walls.

There was no time for a reunion. Sonic raced back to the others (ignoring the Emerald's insistence that it could get him there in an instant; geez, he'd forgotten how bossy Purple was) and skidded to a stop, taking mild pleasure in the sand thrown on Shadow's fancy shoes.

"Ready?" He asked, turning to face the Gaias and holding the Emerald aloft. Its energy flowed through him, keeping his arm from shaking. He gently pushed it away. Its energy was needed for something else.

"Ready." Shadow put his hand on the Emerald beside Sonic's.

"Ready." Blaze laid one hand over theirs and held the Sol Emerald up with the other.

"On one," Sonic grinned.

Shadow closed his eyes.

"Three!"

Blaze closed hers as well, brow furrowing with concentration.

"Two!"

Sonic shut out the world, focusing only on the hands of his friends and the Emeralds held between them.

"One!"

Energy crackled around him, lightning and fire and dark and light and all the colors in between.

" _CHAOS CONTROL!"_

The Chaos Emerald leapt at the familiar command, its energy drawing on the image in their minds. The Sol Emerald's fierce glow piercing through his eyelids. The energies mixed, thoughts into power and soul into energy, burning through reality and, for just a moment, making two worlds one.

Sonic cracked an eyelid to see if it had worked.

Lava crackled and popped, and the sky was black above them. He felt a strange dizziness as he saw his mirror image, crouched on the stone. Beside other-him fluttered what appeared to be a small dog. It glowed with familiar yet not at all familiar light.

Dark Gaia was… big.

It loomed over them, cold and cruel. The thin arms and claws, the green eyes and brown scales, were familiar, yet completely alien. Maybe it had something to do with the _teeth_ around its _eyes_ Pretzel what the _heck._

It lasted only for a second, and then their own reality snapped back in a nauseating instant. Sonic collapsed dizzily to his knees, gasping, hand still tight on the Chaos Emerald. Shadow knelt beside him, palms on the sand as he took deep breaths. Blaze grimaced, rubbing her forehead.

Sonic looked at the Gaias. Their eyes were open. It was difficult to read Light Gaia's expression, assuming it had one, but Pretzel was stepping back. Her expression was hard to read too, but there was doubt. He could feel her energy again, no longer blocked off. She was uncertain. She was having second thoughts. It was enough.

Sonic inhaled deeply. The Chaos Emerald gave him what energy it could after such a massive Chaos Control, urging him on. It was time for the finale.

"With me," Sonic rasped. He held out his hand, and Blaze grasped it firmly. Together they stood. Blaze raised the Sol Emerald in her shaking hand, and Sonic reluctantly turned away from the Chaos Emerald, focusing on the burn left inside him. Oh, Light Gaia. So very eager to take him and keep him, never thinking how a permanent connection like that went two ways.

It went against every bit of instinct and reason to reach through that connection for the white fire. It was wrong, wrong, wrong to pull on that energy knowing very well how it could twist his mind and body. But he did it anyway. He tugged it from Light Gaia, drawing it to himself, pulling and pulling and unraveling the energy Eggman's machine had stolen from Dark Gaia and given to her opposite. He shuddered as the light began to fill him.

Blaze's grip tightened on his hand. _Don't bite off more than you can chew._ Reluctantly, he redirected some of the energy to her, letting her conduct it into the Sol Emerald. The white fire was turned into violet flames easily enough, but there was too much energy to convert, too much for Blaze to safely conduct. He kept that from flowing out of him.

Familiar pain flared in his skin and in his muscles and in every part of him. He grit his teeth. As long as it didn't touch his mind, he would live with it. And if it _did_ touch his mind… his friends would know what to do. He could rely on them.

Something dark and cold brushed him. It was a quiet, gentle thing, but unlike last time, it was firm, leaving no room to refuse it. It flowed smoothly around the light, cutting it off from his mind and cooling the burns. The two energies danced around each other, at once wary and curious. Slowly, they settled into each other, mixing. Equal.

Sonic opened his eyes.

The world was the same. The world was different.

Everyone was alive. Everyone was safe. That was all that mattered.


	37. Setting Sail

Light Gaia had been turned into a dog. A dog who, thankfully, seemed more confused than angry. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. If it didn't remember being a giant bird monster set on killing them all, that would make things much easier.

"Of _course_ he'd be cute," Pretzel, cat-sized once more, muttered sulkily, and that was all anyone got to say about it before Rouge strode into the clearing.

"Good, you've taken care of things." She raised a finger when Blaze started to comment. "Believe it or not, princess, I _was_ helping. GUN are on their way, with Eggman in custody—good work, Shadow—to perform clean-up. Unless you _want_ to fill out a hundred forms and have these two get placed in government custody—" she gestured at the depowered Gaias, apparently unperturbed by the fact Light Gaia was now a confused chihuahua. "—I would suggest you do some clean up yourselves."

"What _are_ we going to do with you two?" Sonic put his hand on his chin, studying the two creatures thoughtfully. "Maybe we could pass you off as Chao?" His tail swept over the sand, and he grimaced internally. He'd hoped the two Gaia energies would cancel each other out, but they both remained active within him, balanced precariously in some sort of stalemate. And now he got _another_ new form to add to the pile. _Wonderful_.

Sonic's thoughts were interrupted by a familiar drone, and his gaze snapped up to the welcome sight of a red and yellow biplane. He broke out into a wide grin and started waving his arms energetically. "Yo! Down here!"

The plane circled around once before landing bumpily on the beach. Amy jumped out of the passenger seat before it stopped moving, and Tails followed close behind. Sonic's heart jumped with relief. He'd been _reasonably_ sure Shadow hadn't _actually_ tossed their corpses at his feet (and he definitely needed to have a talk with Pretzel about manipulating people's emotions, even if it was for the greater good), but it was still a relief to see them alive and whole.

"Did you defeat Light Gaia?" Tails demanded, concerned, over Amy's squealing and attempts to strangle him.

"Yeah, he's right over there," Sonic jerked a thumb at the dog, thankfully redirecting a bit of Amy's attention (and strength) from her bone-crushing hug. "How'd you guys get here so fast?"

"We came as soon as we could!" Amy finally released him, bouncing up and down enthusiastically. "But first we had to clear the airstrip!"

"I think you must have distracted Light Gaia enough that he didn't take control of us again right away." Tails' bright eyes darkened a little at the mention of the creature, and he glanced warily at the dog. "And by the time it _did_ take control again, we were already en route. I guess it decided we could play back-up."

Sonic winced at the thought of Light Gaia taking over Tails mid flight and all the ways that could have gone horribly wrong, but he swept the thought from his mind and focused on how things had gone _right_.

"I think this is a new record," Tails walked in a circle around Sonic, studying his new form. "Two new transformations in one week."

"Three, actually. Maybe four." Sonic raised a pale yellow-ish hand, looking at it curiously, then glanced down at the rest of himself. Navy blue fur, orange tufts, cat tail, and even green wings. And he felt _considerably_ fluffier than normal, which was _not appreciated, Pretzel_.

Tails looked up at him, brows drawing together worriedly. "How long is this one going to last?"

Before Sonic could come up with an answer, a loud hum drew the attention of everyone on the beach.

"That would be the clean-up committee," Rouge nodded towards the sky. "Better get a move on."

Sonic looked at himself, then at the Gaias, then at Blaze and Shadow. This… would be a lot of explaining. "Okay, okay, let's see." He took the Emerald from his hammerspace and tossed it to Shadow, who caught it one handed, the show off. "Do you think you could…" He gestured at their group.

Shadow laid a hand on the Tornado and motioned for them all to gather near it. Tails and Amy climbed back in their seats, and Blaze hopped on the wing. Light Gaia watched the commotion with a bewildered expression.

"Rouge, would you mind covering for us?" Sonic asked, scooping the confused Gaia up—ignoring the way the light energy surged and crackled—and putting him on his shoulder. The dog flapped his wings once before finding his balance. Pretzel immediately leapt onto Sonic's other shoulder, hissing at her counterpart when he got too close.

"When don't I?" Rouge rolled her eyes, then gestured at the smoking island. "What do you want me to say? Light Gaia destroyed the entire island and then just _disappeared_?"

"Just tell the truth," Sonic shrugged. "You saw a problem, gathered intel, went above and beyond your orders, gathered what was needed to defeat Light Gaia _including_ stealing a Chaos Emerald from right under Eggman's nose, and the day was saved. Easy. You could throw Shadow in there, too, if you like."

"I'm good," Shadow said from where he was standing by the plane.

"That's hardly the whole truth," Rouge pointed out, grinning.

"It's most of the truth." Sonic jumped up on the wing opposite Blaze, the Gaias' wings fluttering in his ears and Pretzel's tail nearly taking his eye out.

"The best lies are 'most of the truth'," Rouge laughed, then glanced up at the fast approaching airships. "I'll take care of it. The rest of you, scoot."

"Thanks!" Sonic called as Shadow raised the Emerald.

" _CHAOS CONTROL!"_

The last thing he saw as the world warped away was Rouge's smile.

* * *

That afternoon, it began to rain.

Sonic stood on the shore, watching the drops patter on the ocean waves. Pretzel was still sitting on his shoulder, surprisingly, enjoying the rain as much as he was, if not more. Not-quite-Light Gaia, on the other hand, was pressed against his legs, trying to pretend he didn't hate the wet. Opposites in every way. At least they weren't fighting.

"We still don't have a plan," Shadow said from where he was sitting in the sand. Sonic was pretty sure he was trying to make a sand castle. Failing, but trying. Beside him, Amy and Tails attempted to show him how it was done, but couldn't agree on the proper method, and the building process had devolved into a heated argument about exactly how wet the sand should be.

"I, for one, need to find the rest of the Sol Emeralds and return to my own dimension." Blaze tossed the violet Sol Emerald from hand to hand. "Having one should make it easier."

"Make that two." Blaze and Sonic jumped, whirling around to see Rouge standing behind them with a grin. Shadow didn't look up from his lump of sand. Sonic could've sworn he was smirking.

"What do you—" Rouge cut Blaze off by tossing a familiar grey jewel to her. Blaze caught it and stared in wonder. "Where did you find this?"

Rouge shrugged. "GUN picked it up somewhere. It was part of my payment for saving the world. Only fair that I share with the rest of you." She hesitated, then sighed. "I… should apologize for giving you a false lead, princess." She glanced at Sonic. "I suppose we're all lucky you weren't so easily fooled."

Blaze smiled. "Thank you. It… I suppose it helped me realize my priorities. I am the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and I have a duty to them. But I also have a duty to my friends. Your world is not worth more or less than mine." The two Sol Emeralds winked in the sunlight. "And I can tell they agree." She looked Rouge in the eyes. "Again… thank you."

"Happy to help." Rouge turned to Sonic. "Oh, and I got you something sparkly, too." She lobbed the grey Chaos Emerald at him without warning, and he yelped, fumbling to catch it only for it to fall in the sand.

"Do I get a present?" Pretzel asked dryly.

"GUN doesn't know you exist."

"Wow. You shouldn't have."

"I know." Rouge turned to Shadow. "Nothing for you, either, except you're not getting fired." She hesitated. "Unless you _want_ to be fired."

Shadow considered, then shook his head. "I will continue working for GUN. They need someone to keep them in check." He put a piece of seaweed on top of his sand castle, and it promptly fell apart. He sighed and started gathering the sand again.

Rouge's mouth twitched. "Well, _I_ earned a paid vacation, so if you need me, you won't find me."

"Please don't get arrested." Shadow started digging a moat.

"When do I ever?" Rouge looked at the Gaias. "You have a plan for them yet?"

Sonic looked at Pretzel. "I dunno. Any ideas?"

"I would like to live in a cave."

"I am more concerned about Light Gaia." Blaze nodded at the little dog creature. "If anyone were to find out his identity… his crimes are far more fresh than any of Dark Gaia's."

Pretzel cast a considering glance over the dog and, after a long moment's hesitation, sighed. "I'll… I'll look after him. I guess."

"Really!?" Everyone jumped a good foot or so as the dog suddenly sprang into the air with a high-pitched squeal. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou—"

"He won't want to live in a cave," Sonic pointed out over the dog's yapping.

Pretzel sighed again, shoulders slumping. "Yeah…" Sonic resisted the urge to laugh at her despairing expression as Light Gaia attempted to hug her.

"Actually!" Amy jumped in, earning a glare from Tails as she destroyed their sand castle. "You two could stay with me!" She beamed at the dog. "Not a lot of people know where my apartment is—"

"You have an apartment?" Sonic interjected in surprise.

"Is that legal?" Shadow asked. "I thought you were minors."

" _I_ am _fifteen,_ thank you very much." Sonic crossed his arms, scowling.

"That makes you a minor."

"Not in dog years!"

"You are not a dog."

"I'm _part_ dog, now!"

"Part _wolf,_ " Pretzel corrected irritably. "Dogs are _his_ thing."

"I like dogs!" The dog agreed.

" _So,_ would you two like to stay with me?" Amy dragged the conversation back on topic by sheer willpower alone.

"Yes!" yipped the dog.

"Is it hot there?" Pretzel asked.

"Sometimes, but I have air conditioning!" Seeing Pretzel's look, she added. "And in winter, it _snows_!"

"…okay." Pretzel sighed.

"Yay!" The dog squealed, once again trying to hug her. Amy, thankfully, intercepted him. Sonic did _not_ want to know what would happen if the two Gaias got in a fight.

"All's well that ends well, I guess," Tails muttered. He looked at Sonic. "But… what about your new form, Sonic? Is it going to wear off?"

Sonic sighed. He considered trying to change the subject like he had been for the past hour or so, but Tails wasn't one to give up. Might as well get the conversation over with while everyone was there to chip in.

"I don't know," he confessed, swishing his tail. It hadn't changed much from when he was the "hedgecat", but the fur felt heavier in the rain. Thicker, more… wolf-like? _All_ of his fur was longer, especially around his neck, on his wrists, and on his ankles. He just hoped he didn't smell like wet dog.

"I think it'll last as long as you have our energies," Pretzel said, tapping one of his wings. He winced, and she drew back. "We're lucky they didn't transform you _more_ , with all that you took on."

"Do you want us to take them back?" The little dog asked, eager to help, though he didn't have any idea what was going on.

"What would that do to you guys?" Sonic looked at Pretzel.

She frowned. "I… don't know. It is… a lot of energy. I think it would definitely _change_ us. Not quite to our full states, but… closer."

"Then I'll keep it, for now," Sonic said with more certainty than he felt. "No offense, but I don't think you guys are ready to… change, again."

Pretzel looked relieved. The dog, now trying to help with the sandcastle, glanced up with a concerned expression. "Does it hurt?"

Sonic glanced back at his wings. They were different now; they had an arm, for one, like Pretzel's wings, and thin veins like a butterfly's. And they were tattered.

"No," he assured the dog with a smile. "As long as I don't have to keep transforming back and forth, it doesn't hurt."

"That's good!" The dog went back to digging in the sand, tail waving happily.

Sonic didn't miss Tails' relieved sigh. "It's still strange, though. Why did he—" Tails nodded at Light Gaia. "—transform you into some sort of…" He glanced at Pretzel. "…hedgecat?"

"Oh, I think I can explain that." Pretzel shook the rain off her wings, getting a yelp from the dog, and glanced up irritably at the sunlight breaking through the clouds. "We each have our preferences. Light's fond of dogs. I'm fond of cats."

"Then why—" Sonic started to say, but she raised a claw to cut him off.

"Fondness isn't all. We also have natural connections to certain species. Him to day creatures—humans, dogs, squirrels, hawks—and me to night creatures—big cats, owls, bats, moths, that kind of thing. Cats aren't really day or night, so it was able to make you a cat."

"But he doesn't _like_ cats."

"I think he was trying to get on my nerves, or maybe it was the closest he could get to a lion. Maybe he was hoping it would lure me in so you'd kill me."

Sonic made a face. "In that… other reality… it looked like Dark Gaia turned me into a wolf."

"Probably to get on his nerves. Very close to a dog, but still a night creature."

"You two are really petty."

Pretzel's only response was a fanged grin.

Sonic glanced at the dog creature playing in the sand. He had wings like Sonic had as the hedgecat, but a brighter, more vibrant green. And his were cracked and broken on the edges, like a shattered crystal. Sonic glanced back at his own, now tattered wings. "I guess the rest of it is just resemblance to you two."

Pretzel batted at one of his ears and laughed at his irritated look. "Yup."

"So." Rouge coughed, drawing everyone's attention. "To sum up. Shadow and I are going back to GUN, the living incarnations of light and darkness are going with the little girl, and the princess is getting her Emeralds and going back to her dimension. That about right?"

"I'm practically a teenager!" Amy protested.

"And you own an apartment…" Shadow muttered. He coughed and straightened. "I can use Chaos Control to take us off the island, as I'm assuming you can't all fit in the biplane?"

Tails looked at the Tornado. "Yeah… maybe Amy and the Gaias, but I don't think we could fit anyone else."

"I will go with Shadow and Rouge, then." Blaze glanced at Rouge. "Assuming that is alright with them."

"Happy to have you, highness." Rouge turned to Sonic. "I know I just gave it to you, but…"

"Oh, yeah," Sonic brushed off the grey Emerald and hesitated a moment, looking at it. He pulled out the other, purple Emerald and considered them both. Purple pushed insistently at him, and with a laugh he handed it to Rouge. "Go ahead. And if you find any others, wouldja drop me a line? You don't need to _give_ them to me, just let me check in with them."

"I'm sure they'll come to you on their own." Rouge tossed the purple Emerald to Shadow. "But sure, I'll let you know."

Sonic glanced at Blaze, and she put up a hand to stop him from saying anything. "I will be sure to visit you before I leave, Sonic. And I may need your help retrieving the Sol Emeralds."

Sonic smiled. "Looking forward to it." He stepped back to stand with Tails and Amy, watching as Shadow shouted the command and the world, for just a moment, condensed. Then it sprang apart again, and Shadow, Blaze, and Rouge were gone.

"Well," Sonic turned to Tails and Amy with a grin. "Guess it's time to go."

"Go where?" The dog asked eagerly as they began to climb in the biplane.

"Home!" Amy cheered, buckling her seatbelt.

" _Your_ home," Tails corrected with a smile.

Sonic laughed, gripping the wing as the plane coasted down the beach. "Does it matter, really?"

"A little bit," Pretzel muttered. Sonic laughed again, and they took to the imperfect blue sky.


	38. Coming Home

Rain pattered a gentle rhythm on the wood as the people of Adabat hurried from building to building, raincoats pulled over their heads as they grumbled about the weather. Sonic chuckled, leaning forward to catch some of the raindrops in his hand before shaking them off and pulling it back under the temple roof.

Thunder roared in the distance, and "Whip", the little dog-like creature Light Gaia had been turned into, ducked behind Amy with a yelp.

"My kind of weather," Pretzel pronounced with satisfaction, smirking at her counterpart.

"You're being nice to him, right?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

Pretzel rolled her eyes. "I'm not nice to _anyone_. He doesn't get special treatment." She glanced outside again. "Besides, everyone should be grateful for the rain after all that _heat_." She shuddered.

"It is a little odd to have rain in the dry season," Amy mumbled around a forkful of noodles. "But I think it's nice!"

"Well, I'm not looking forward to having to walk through it," Tails muttered, curling his tails around him. "My fur's going to get soaked."

"Who said anything about walking?" Sonic teased.

"As long as you don't run into the ocean," Tails shot back, standing and dusting off his fur. "Besides, I'm going ahead to make sure everything's ready."

"Aw, you're leaving already?" Amy pouted. She set down her noodles and bounced to her feet. "Do you need help with anything?"

"I don't think so," Tails shook his head, then glanced at her hopefully. "Unless you have motion sickness medicine…?"

"Sorry, we came through the temple door," Amy gestured into the interior of the temple. "Whip makes traveling a lot easier." She smiled down at the little dog-like creature, who glanced up from his bowl of noodles to beam at her before resuming eating, his namesake tail whipping back and forth.

Tails sighed. "I'll manage. Thanks anyway, Amy."

"Meet you at the space elevator, bro!" Sonic waved as Tails set out determinedly into the rain. He turned to Amy. "So they haven't been any trouble?"

She beamed. "They've been great! Whip gets along great with everyone, and Pretzel…" She cast a questioning look at Dark Gaia.

Pretzel shrugged. "I get the apartment to myself most of the time. As long as it's not hot, I'm happy."

"'Keep in a cool dry place', huh?" Sonic grinned. "Thanks for looking after them, Amy."

"Happy to help!" Amy bounced in her seat, then steadied herself with effort, trying to look more mature. Sonic resisted a laugh. "Did you find the Emeralds?"

"Nah, I got sidetracked helping Blaze track down hers." He closed his eyes briefly. The beacons were there immediately, assuring him of their presence. Red, blue, green, purple, cyan, yellow, and grey. All there. They had always been there, of course. They could never go out. Dim, maybe. Rest, maybe. But never go out. Not them.

Still. It was good to feel them and hear them again.

He held on for a minute, then let them go and opened his eyes again. "I don't think I need to find them right now, anyway."

"What about Eggman?" Amy frowned. "I heard he escaped."

"Yeah, but his latest plot doesn't seem to involve the Chaos Emeralds at all, given that he's in space and they're down here." Sonic shrugged. "Maybe he's learning new tricks after all." He glanced out at the sky and the distant shape of the space elevator. If there was one thing he had to give Eggman credit for, it was that he worked fast. "Speaking of which, I should probably get going."

"Aw, already?" Amy sighed.

"You could always come with me," Sonic offered, somewhat jokingly.

Amy considered, then shook her head. "I need to take care of Whip and Pretzel."

"They could come, too."

"The planet would die if we left," Pretzel said matter-of-factly.

Sonic blinked. "Really?"

"I dunno. Probably?"

"You'll be back soon anyway, right?" Amy asked hopefully.

"Should be!" Sonic grinned. "And the sooner I leave, the sooner I get back." He hopped to his feet and winced as Amy immediately tackled him in a hug. At least she didn't touch his wings. Those things were getting old.

"Come back soon!" Amy called, waving, as he darted out the door. Sonic grinned and waved back before darting away. Puddles splashed over his sneakers, and he paused as sunlight broke through the clouds to appreciate the view of the ocean, dark and cool and endless.

A shadow slipped through the raindrops behind him, and he turned to greet her.

"Forget something, Pretzel?"

Pretzel jumped up on his shoulder, hesitating briefly before butting her head against his. "Thanks. For helping me."

"Any time. Seriously, any time, Pretzel. If you ever need help… you've got friends now."

Pretzel smiled. "I know." She glanced up at the sky, and Sonic followed her gaze to the waiting elevator. "Be careful." She looked him in the eye. "Please."

Sonic returned her gaze steadily. "I will."

Pretzel nodded and jumped off his shoulder, vanishing into the dwindling rain.

Sonic stayed a moment more, taking in the sight of the earth and the sea and the sky, then at the space elevator, stretching endlessly into the unknown.

He grinned and started running.

* * *

Pretzel rejoined Amy and Whip without either of them noticing, too busy talking about deserts or something. She shook out her fur, sprinkling Whip with water in the process, and stuck out her tongue at his disgruntled expression. While Whip tried to shake the water from his fur, Pretzel swiped a noodle from his bowl.

"Give it back!" Whip protested, flaring his wings dramatically.

Pretzel grinned and jumped out into the rain, the noodle still clasped in her claws. She twitched her tail tauntingly. "Then come and get it."

Whip narrowed his eyes, then without warning shot out his paws and grabbed her tails. Pretzel yelped as Whip dragged her into the temple and pounced for the noodle. She tried to kick him away, and the fight quickly devolved into a wrestling match that knocked over the rest of Whip's noodles and nearly Amy's as well.

"I take it you two are done eating?" Amy crossed her arms.

Pretzel released the now squished noodle, and Whip backed away with an expression of disappointed disgust. Pretzel grinned and ate it without hesitation. "I'm good," she announced

"Can I finish mine at home?" Whip asked hopefully.

"Can I finish mine at home?" Whip asked hopefully.

"Why not?" Amy shrugged. "I don't _think_ they have a rule against food in the inner temple."

"And even if they do, they'll probably let _Whip_ get away with it," Pretzel added, jumping on Amy's shoulder.

"I'll use my innocent charms!" Whip agreed eagerly, perching on Amy's other shoulder with the noodles clasped in his paws.

"Your _what_?" Amy blinked.

"Pretzel told me about it." Whip widened his eyes in a puppy dog expression to demonstrate. "She said with my looks and her brains we'll make a great team!"

" _Did_ she now." Pretzel was proud that Amy had learned to pull off a deadpan expression so well.

"We'll only make a great team if you stop _telling everyone_ ," Pretzel hissed.

"Pretzel, stop corrupting your brother." Amy told her as they entered the inner sanctuary, ignoring the looks they got from the security guards.

"I'm not _corrupting him_ , I'm teaching him important life lessons!" Pretzel flared her wings in protest.

Amy decided to drop the topic as they reached the doors. They stood as they had before, with the exception of the Chun-nan door, taken apart by Eggman before he fled his base. Whip fluttered to the door to Empire City. The moment he touched it, it lit up with an eager glow. Pretzel winced at the sudden white light.

"Ready?" Amy asked, glancing at her.

Pretzel blinked her vision clear. The fierce white faded, and the soft colors of the temple and Amy and Whip returned. Whip looked up at her, head cocked, with a concerned expression. Small. Harmless. Her brother.

Pretzel smiled. "Let's go home."

Together, they stepped into the light.

* * *

Far, far above them, a silver bullet shot to the heavens.

"Hello, happy people! Buckle up, as Eggman's Ultra-Accelerating Space Elevator whisks you to an interplanetary wonderland of fun!"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "I can't believe he got this set up so fast."

"Well, it's not like anyone was going to stop him," Tails muttered from where he was huddled miserably on the floor, clutching a sic-sac. "There's no evidence he was involved with the Gaia incident at all other than a base on South Island that was there way before everything went down. And no one was really sure what was being built or if he was even involved. We're _still_ not sure what's up there. It could be a space station or a weapon of mass destruction—"

Sonic raised a finger to stop his rambling. "And that's what we're here for, right?"

"Right." Tails returned his smile queasily.

Leaving him to his misery, Sonic walked over to the window and peered out at the blue Earth, fast falling away beneath him. For a moment he felt dizzy, remembering falling gold and white hot pain. But he pushed it away as always, focusing on the tethers in his mind, holding him to the ground. The seven beacons echoed familiar and comforting, warm and bright and brilliant. And now there were two more presences. The light one, he didn't yet dare to touch, the burns too fresh in his mind. But the dark he reached out to with practiced familiarity, as he did every night when the memories woke him.

Pretzel claimed it was because she was nocturnal, but he couldn't help but notice that regardless of their respective time zones, whether it was night for her or not, she was always awake when he reached for her. He tried not to peer too closely at her mind, but he felt— no, he _knew_ she had nightmares of her own.

Not now, though. Now, her mind was the soft glow of fresh powder and thawing ice, calm and still like a lake outside of time. It lapped reassuringly at him. Not falsely sweet and not secretly bitter. Open and clear.

 _Be safe,_ their minds echoed to each other. _I know you, and I care._

Beyond the gleaming metal walls space stretched impassive and dark, broken only by the cold light of the stars. Infinity, asking if he dares to challenge it.

He chuckled. This would be fun.


End file.
